New Delhi, Jun 22 (IANS): India needs lakhs of people to donate blood each day because of its huge population, union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said Friday, at a function marking International Blood Donor Week.

"India cannot just celebrate one week of blood donation with such a huge population. We should have lakhs and crores of blood donations per day," Azad said.

"There is no dearth of donors, but an atmosphere needs to be created. Then lots of lives can be saved. This is now in our hands," the minister said.

At another function Friday, Azad said: "Despite socio-economic development and advances in medical science, tuberculosis remains a major public health concern globally. Millions of people suffer and die from this disease every year," he said.

Since 2007, the case detection rate of TB has gone up by more than 70 percent, in line with the global targets for TB control, while maintaining the treatment success rate of more than 85 percent, according to health ministry figures.