Centre seeks help of Industry, Academics on Healthcare

Mumbai, Jan 15 (IANS) Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J.P. Nadda Thursday stressed on greater links between the government, industry and academicians to find solutions to healthcare challenges in India.

While the government is taking several steps to address healthcare challenges, the minister said there is a strong need to augment these by the way of industry-academic partners.

Nadda was inaugurating the three-day H3C Health Conference or Health - Care, Career and Commerce programme of the Ohio State University (OSU), US, here.

The minister said though health is a state subject in India, the central government was closely involved in the sector by providing financial and technical support to states besides policy inputs.

"Shortage of human resources, doctors, nurses and paramedics is a major constraint in expanding holistic healthcare systems, especially in rural areas, for which innovative and cost-effective solutions must be found," said Nadda.

He empahised the need for innovations in medical devices, particularly the low-end devices which cater to the basic needs of healthcare in the country as the government is committed to providing affordable healthcare to all.

"The prime minister believes in outcomes...therefore our government is driven by three principles - skill, scale and speed," he pointed out.

Nadda recalled India's historic association with the OSU, which had played a key role in ushering in the Green Revolution that helped India become self-sufficient in food production.

Nadda also called for the need to scale up India's linkage with the US' second largest public university by doubling the intake of Indian students from the present 700 to 1,500.

The conference, with focus on infectious and other diseases, is an outreach programme of the university aimed at giving it presence in select countries providing opportunities for studying and conducting research abroad.

The OSU India Gateway, which was launched here in 2012, aims to form research linkages between the OSU and Indian bio-tech and pharma companies and reach out to students.

The conference will have sessions on clinical research, commercial and international business strategies from topics such as AIDS, cancer, gastroenterology, pharmacology, vision of a futuristic hospital in Mumbai.

Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier, who discovered HIV/AIDS, will deliver the key note lecture.

Founded in 1870, the OSU is one of the largest American universities with extraordinary research infrastructure, a massive research programme with annual expenses of nearly one billion dollars and ranks second in the US on industry-sponsored research.