Prime Minister today addressed the 25^th Foundation Day of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences at Bengaluru via video conferencing.

Prime Minister appreciated the efforts of the Karnataka Government in handling the COVID-19 situation.

Shri Modi said the World is facing one of the biggest crisis since the two World Wars. Like the world changed pre and post-World Wars, the same way the pre and post Covid world will be different, he said.

Shri Modi said at the root of India's brave fight against Covid-19 is the hard-work of the medical community and our Corona warriors. He likened the doctors and medical workers as soldiers but without the soldiers’ uniform.

Prime Minister said the virus may be invisible enemy but our corona warriors are invincible and in the battle against the invisible vs invincible our med workers are sure to win.

Prime Minister expressed concern at violent incidents, owing to mob mentality, against the front-line workers and said several steps have been taken by the Government to curb them. He said that the Government also provided an insurance cover of Rs. 50 Lakhs to those on the front-line.

Prime Minister called for a focus on human centric aspects of development instead of debates on economic issues in the era of globalisation.

He said, advancements nations make in the health sector will matter more than ever before and that the Government had taken many initiativesin health-care and medical education, in the last 6 years.

Prime Minister called for a four pillared strategy to improve the health care, its infrastructure and its access to one and all.

He said the first pillar would be Preventive Health Carewhere in the emphasis would be importance of Yoga, Ayurveda and General Fitness. He said more than 40,000 Wellness Centres were opened with a key focus on controlling life style related diseases. The success of Swachch Bharat mission is another key area of preventive health care.

The second pillar is - Affordable Healthcare. Prime Minister highlighted the success of Ayushman Bharat- the world's largest healthcare scheme and how in less than two years, One crore people have benefitted from it, especially women and those living in rural areas. 

The third pillar is- Improvements on the supply side.  Prime Minister said that a nation like Indai has to have proper medical infrastructure and medical education infrastructure. 

He said, Work is under-way to ensure a medical college or post-graduate medical institute in every district of the country.  Prime Minister underlined the fact that the country has seen rapid progress in setting up 22 more AIIMS. 

He said over the last five years, we have been able to add over 30,000 seats in MBBSand 15,000 seats in post-graduation.   This has been the largest increase in the five year term of any government since independence. 

Prime Minister also spoke of the setting up of National Medical Commission to replace The Medical Council of India through an Act of the Parliament. 

The fourth pillar, he said would be  Mission mode implementation of all the schemes and that it is very crucial for the success of a good idea.

He cited how the implementation of National Nutrition Mission is helping youngsters and mothers and also how India is determined to eliminate Tuberculosis by 2025, which is 5 years ahead of the global target of 2030.

He also spoke of Mission Indradhanush where the annual rise in vaccination coverage has increased by four times.

Prime Minister said that the Central Government has recently approved the introduction of a new law for expanding education of more than 50 different allied and healthcare professionals, which will address the shortage of shortage of para-medical personnel in the country.  

He urged the gathering to discuss and ideate on three issues namely how to make advances in Tele-Medicine; how to make gains in health sector through ‘Make In India” and how to bring about more of IT related services into health care.

He was appreciative of how the initial gains in the area of Make in India where the domestic manufacturers started production of PPEs and N-95 Masks and already supplied over 1 Crore of PPEs and 1.5 Crore of Masks.

Prime Minister also appreciated how the ArogyaSetu App is helping in the fight against Corona virus.

VRRK/AKP