Interview: Padma Shri 2026 Awardee Dr P Vijay Anand Reddy

Most parents have never heard the word retinoblastoma. But India records nearly 1,500 new cases of this childhood eye cancer every year — and the earliest warning sign is hiding in plain sight, in a photograph on your phone.

In this interview, South First‘s Sumit Jha speaks with Dr P Vijay Anand Reddy, Padma Shri 2026 awardee and Director of Apollo Cancer Centre, Hyderabad — one of India’s most respected names in ocular oncology — about the signs parents miss, why India carries 25 percent of the global retinoblastoma burden, how treatment has transformed over four decades, and the one thing every parent in a small town needs to know right now.

If you have a child under five, watch this fully.