At a time when a large number of Indian students, many of them studying medicine, are stuck in Ukraine following the Russian attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a webinar inauguration on Saturday, February 26, that Indian students have been going to “small countries for study, especially in medical education”.
Speaking after inaugurating the webinar on Union Budget announcements on the health sector, Modi suggested that state governments should devise plans for land allotment for medical education so that India can offer a large number of doctors and paramedics to fulfil even a global demand.
Modi made no direct mention of the situation of Indian students in Ukraine. Reports have been coming thick and fast of students stuck in the attacked country, requesting attention and evacuation.
He said Indian students going abroad for study, especially in medical education, results in hundreds of billions of rupees exiting the country.
“Our children today are going to small countries for study, especially in medical education. Language is a problem there. They are still going…Can our private sector not enter this field in a big way? Can our state governments not frame good policies for land allotment regarding this,” he asked.
India can benefit a lot from its demographic dividend in this field, he said, adding Indian doctors have enhanced the country’s prestige across the world in the last many decades with their work.
In the webinar, Modi also highlighted his government’s efforts to provide quality health as well as wellness services to people with its holistic approach to the healthcare system.
The government has been working with the spirit of “one India one health” so that people in remote locations also have access to quality healthcare, he said, adding quality healthcare infrastructure should not be confined only to big cities, he said.
Modi said work on 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres is progressing at a brisk pace, with over 85,000 centres providing the facility of routine checkups, vaccination and tests till now.
Congratulating India’s healthcare professionals for the country’s massive COVID-19 vaccination programme, he said it has established the “efficiency and mission-oriented nature of India’s healthcare system.”
“Platforms like CoWin have established India’s reputation in the world with regard to digital health solutions,” he added.
