Govt to spend 2% GDP on health sector

The government today said it will spend nearly two per cent of GDP on health care sector. "This is in the 12th Plan. We will be spending about two per cent of our GDP, which is 100 per cent increase...The government is taking all steps to boost the health sector... The Prime Minister has agreed to increase spending on health sector from the 1% of GDP to 2%," Union Minister of State for Planning, Science and Technology Ashwani Kumar said here.

He was delivering his inaugural address on the occasion of 'Research Day', being celebrated as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGMIER) here. Batting for increased spending on research, he said so far in India, private sector was not contributing much towards this.

"All over the world 3/4th funding on research comes from the private sector but in India it is reverse, two-third is spent by government and only one-third by the private sector. Apart from the government increasing its own share, a committee has been set up to attract funding from the private sector so that it becomes a kind of Public-Private Partnership effort," he said. He said India's global standing in the field of science and technology will depend upon its innovative capabilities.

"Innovation means to provide affordable services to the masses...the country needs new structures and mechanisms to create a system which enables indigenous methods for affordable innovations and benchmarking of global best practices for quality innovations," the minister said. Indian Council of Medical Research and Department of Science and Technology scientific advisory committee chairman V I Mathan said, "We need to respect the achievements of Indian scientists and researchers, who may not necessarily have got the acclaimed international awards."

PGIMER director Yogesh Chawla said in the next 10 years, the institute plans to introduce robotic surgery and state-of- the-art metabolic, genetic laboratories and multi-organ transplantation facility.