India going through epidemiological transition: Kovind
Vellore, May 4: President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday said India is going through an epidemiological transition and faces three challenges in disease control.
"First, India has to reduce maternal and infant mortality as well as communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, vector-borne diseases such as malaria, water-borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhoeal diseases and vaccine-preventable diseases like measles and tetanus."
Speaking on the centenary celebrations of the Medical Education programme of the Christian Medical College (CMC), Kovind pointed out that the country had to check the rise in non-communicable or lifestyle diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and many cancers.
"And finally, we need to develop systems to detect and cope with new and re-emerging infectious diseases like HIV, avian flu and H1N1 influenza," he said in Vellore, around 140 km from Chennai.
Kovind said this calls for interventions across the continuum of care-prevention of disease, promotion of good health practices and treatment and cure in case of an illness.
"The impact of a health problem is cross-cutting -- it affects a variety of sectors. The meeting of this challenge should also follow a multi-stakeholder approach. The government and civil society, private and public health care providers, charitable and economic institutions all have a role and a stake."
According to the President, the National Health Mission, the National Health Policy and the Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme were alive to this broad-based approach and ensure that nobody was deprived of healthcare due to the absence of financial or similar resources.
Kovind said the principles that must guide the philosophy of public health were equity and efficiency, quality and quantity, and access and affordability.
"Yes, it is also a business - but there is no greater business than saving a life. I am sure the CMC community will agree," he said.
He said there was an urgent need for reform in medical education to create room for more colleges and more medical graduates.
"In India, we have 1.47 million undergraduate engineering seats, but only 67,352 undergraduate medical seats. And about 20 per cent of those seats were added in the past four years."
Praising CMC for its reputation for excellence, Kovind said: "India's first re-constructive surgery on leprosy patients was carried out here, and so was the first successful open heart surgery and the first kidney transplant."
Recent research on the rotavirus vaccine, hepatitis, malnutrition, bio-engineering and stem cells underlines CMC's commitment to research that is relevant to India's health needs, he added.
The President is on a two-day visit to Tamil Nadu starting on Friday. On his arrival at the Chennai airport, Kovind was received by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and others.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
