The scope of treatment with stem cells has widened over the years. Stem cells can be used in treatment of 80 diseases like heart ailments, diabetes, skin trauma, certain cancers like leukaemia and breast cancer, and blood disorders like thalassemia major.

Cordlife Ltd, a Singapore-based cord blood banking group launched the first Indian facility to store stem cells from the umbilical cord blood, which can be used to regenerate tissues of brain, heart and the like.

Group CEO Steven Fang said, "The first Cordlife facility in India, with a storage capacity of up to 1,50,000 cord blood units, has been set up at Bishnupur area on the outskirts of Kolkata. There are two additional centres - at Siliguri town in West Bengal's Darjeeling district and Durgapur in Burdwan district - for blood collection."

Meghnath Roy Chowdhury, managing director (MD), Cordlife Sciences India Pvt. Ltd said, "First, we are targeting the major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore followed by tier-two cities."

The initial storage costs can run as high as Rs 38,000 and then Rs 3,500 per month.