Kolkata: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is emerging as one of the country's most pressing public health concerns, a renowned nephrologist said.

CKD is fuelled by lifestyle disorders like diabetes and hypertension and compounded by environmental and occupational factors, kidney ailments are no longer confined to the elderly or the urban elite, he said.

If left unchecked, kidney disease could soon take on the proportions of an epidemic, the nephrologist said.

Talking to PTI, Dr H Sudarshan Ballal shared his experience of witnessing how India's renal healthcare evolved from scarcity to scale but also watched new challenges emerge with unsettling speed.

"When I returned to India in 1991 from the US, there were just 800 nephrologists in the entire country. In fact, there were more Indian

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