The only unfortunate aspect of the meet this year is the lukewarm response of companies like General Motors and Pico to it, he said.

In the 1989 Paris conference, GE presided over the whole show whereas now its presence is minimal and half hearted, Banerji said. ``This is despite the fact that GE is manufacting in India. Maybe the Indian representatives are willing but have obviously been disuaded by their Western counterparts as a reaction to India's nuclear blasts''.

On the incongruence of India hosting a radiology conference despite its poor healthcare records, Banerjee agreed that few medical facilities reached the average Indian patients either for want of an electric plug or merely because the local government wasn't interested. The time is running out, he warned. ``Health care is collapsing in India and health insurances alone could bail out the system,'' he said. ``The Government should immediately start health insurances for the people. The method should be that A pays for B. That is the rich pay more premium for a benefit of say Rs 2 lakh while his poor counterpart pays less for the same amount''.

Describing the existing Indian insurance companies as lazy, he said the government should let in the foreign insurance companies which will lap up the offer to insure such a big population. ``They can just go to a factory and get a list of people getting incomes below say Rs 2000, and charge a premium of Rs 100 p.a. while charging 10,000 p.a. from those getting a higher payscale. The Government on its part can give income tax exemptions on amounts insured. This will enable people to get facilities in private hospitals while the bills will go to the insurance companies,'' he said. ``As for total cost-free health care, it is nigh impossible even for the richest country. Health has to be a joint venture.'' Referring to the prime minister's appeal in his inaugural speech for radiologists to come up with ways to make their diagnostic systems affordable, he said a radiologist cannot be expected to charge less fee for the use of a machine which has cost him a big amount.

He said the main goal of the radiology congress was to join hands with the SAARC countries to free the whole region of health hazards. ``We want radiologists in these nations to update and know. Hence special concessions were given even in the matter of registration fee to delegates from those nations,'' he said. This interaction is to continue as experts plan to continue keeping in touch with these nations going there in groups for lectures.

Banerjee said the five-day meet at Pragati Maidan, which concludes on Wednesday, was the outcome of four years of hard work by him and his team. ``There is no infrastructure anywhere in India to hold a conference of this magnitude. The congress is being attended by 5,000 delagates from different parts of the world. There are another 1,000 participating in the accompanying exhibition section''.

Banerjee said the Indian Trade Promotion Association offered them the venue at the normal commercial rates though the meet was on health care. ``It is a commercial body and cannot be expected to make distictions. It was for the Government now to chip in with subsidies to ITPA,'' he said.

``The venue, with eight sound-proof auditoriums, has been prepared by Pico International. It will be dismantled after the meet, and Pico will take away its things. It is again for the Government to see that such a world class infrastructure is preserved for future use,'' he concluded.