Lucknow, Feb 11 (IANS): Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Saturday said that the government is improving the healthcare and medical education sectors through a holistic approach that not only envisages creating more quality healthcare infrastructure but also trained manpower to efficiently run institutions.
"Health is today being linked with development because only a healthy society can become a developed society," he said in his address to the plenary session of the Uttar Pradesh Global Investors Summit.
The session discussed the progress and way forward on priorities in the healthcare and medical education sector.
Mandaviya said: "Uttar Pradesh is the land of Sushrut and Charaka. Under the leadership of (PM) Narendra Modi at the centre and (CM) Yogi Adityanath in the state, UP is a land of opportunities."
Encouraging investors and businesses to encash on the opportunities available in the healthcare and medical education sectors in the state, he said that the government "has created a conducive ecosystem for businesses to grow and has brought in long-term policies to encourage investors in the healthcare sector".
He said that because of the policies of the government, there are over 100 unicorns in the country today.
Mandaviya also highlighted that govt schemes like the Ayushman Bharat initiative has empowered and enabled even the poorest of the poor to benefit from quality treatment, even in private medical institutions. He also stated that the country is today 65 per cent dependent on import of medical devices and urged entrepreneurs to reduce this high dependency.
Reminding the audience of India successfully reducing the dependency of APIs for critical medicines in recent years, he also encouraged them to innovate in producing medical devices indigenously.
In this interactive session, the Uttar Pradesh govt also provided information on new medical facilities to the investors and highlighted opportunities available in medical colleges, para medical colleges and diagnostic facilities in the state.