HYDERABAD — Apollo Hospitals Group announced Tuesday the formal launch of a nationwide organ donation registry drive, following Monday's high-profile awareness summit in which donor families were honoured and the network's milestone of 27,500 transplants was publicly celebrated. The initiative aims to enrol 100,000 new organ donor pledges across India before December 31, 2026, leveraging Apollo's network of over 70 hospitals as registration hubs.

Dr. Prathap C. Reddy, founder of Apollo Hospitals, addressed staff and media at the Hyderabad flagship campus Tuesday morning, calling organ donation 'the most profound gift one generation can offer the next.' The announcement builds directly on the emotional momentum generated by Monday's ceremony, where families of deceased donors were recognised for their contributions to saving lives across the country.

The campaign will deploy digital registration kiosks at Apollo outpatient departments in Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru, while a dedicated mobile application will allow citizens to pledge organ donation and download a digital donor card. Apollo officials confirmed a partnership with India's National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) to ensure all new registrations feed directly into the national database.

Public health advocates have long pointed to India's low donor registration rate — estimated at fewer than 1.5 donors per million population — as a critical bottleneck in transplant medicine. Apollo's initiative is being positioned as a corporate-civic model that other major hospital chains may be encouraged to replicate. The Indian Society of Organ Transplantation has expressed support for the drive and is expected to issue a formal endorsement later this week.

As part of the outreach, Apollo will screen short documentaries in waiting rooms and community centres featuring testimonials from transplant recipients and donor families honoured at Monday's event. Campaign organisers said they hope the personal stories, amplified through social media, will shift cultural hesitancy around organ donation that remains a persistent challenge in several Indian states.