The 1,000th baby, a boy, was born to a woman called Anju, who hails from Haldwani in Uttarakhand, a week back. Since then, 12 more test tube babies have been born at the centre, the doctors said Thursday.

 The centre has become the fifth in India to achieve the rare feat of delivering 1,000 test tube babies, they said.

 Narendra Malhotra said their IVF centre was established in 1997- the first in Uttar Pradesh and the 25th in India. Of the 1,000 test tube babies, 30 were twins and half a dozen were triplets.

Jaideep Malhotra said she was very satisfied and happy that the IVF technique has helped hundreds of families to have babies.

"But we have many miles to go. Right now our chief focus is to sensitise people towards the undesirable trend of female infanticide and foeticide," says Narendra Malhotra, a former president of the Federation of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians Societies of India.