We must be ready to prevent and respond to health emergencies: PM Modi

Gandhinagar: India is following a holistic and inclusive approach towards health, providing affordable healthcare to all and promoting traditional systems of medicine along with expanding health infrastructure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday.

"The global celebration of the International Day of Yoga is testament to the universal desire for holistic health," he said while addressing the G20 Health Ministers' Meet here via video message.

Modi also pointed out that 2023 is being marked as the International Year of Millets. "Millets or 'shri anna' as they are known in India, have several health benefits," he said.


"We believe that holistic health and wellness can help enhance everyone's resilience," the prime minister said. "The establishment of WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar is an important step in this direction."

Holding of WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine along with G20 health ministers' meeting will intensify efforts to harness its potential, he said. "It should be our joint effort to build a global repository of traditional medicine," he added.

Lauding the steps taken to address the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that cause drug-resistant infections, Modi said AMR is a grave risk to global public health and all pharmaceutical advancements so far.

Highlighting his government's humanitarian initiative to provide Covid-19 vaccine to the world, the prime minister said India delivered 300 million vaccine doses to more than 100 countries, including many in the global south, under the Vaccine Maitri initiative.

Calling resilience one of the biggest lessons during the pandemic, Modi said global health systems should be resilient. "We must be ready to prevent, prepare, and respond to the next health emergency," he said. "This is especially important in today's interconnected world. As we saw during the pandemic, health issues in one part of the world can affect all other parts of the world in a very short time."