Governor Bandaru Dattatraya on the occasion of first pioneering conference on Next-Gen Paradigms in Healthcare –ICONICA 2020 at Punjab University Chandigarh on 13 February 2020 .Governor Bandaru Dattatraya gave a clarion call to young scientists and doctors to dedicate their research efforts to find solutions of the challenges and to improve quality of healthcare in India and alleviate sufferings.The Governor was speaking on the inauguration session of first pioneering conference on Next-Gen Paradigms in Healthcare –ICONICA 2020 at Punjab University, Chandigarh, today.He said that in the last few decades, India has been showing tremendous improvement in the healthcare sector as indicated by the decline in infant and maternal mortality as well as by an increase in life expectancy. He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been very strongly emphasizing upon ‘Healthy India is Prosperous India’ and in the last five years, Govt. of India has come up with groundbreaking Schemes as Ayushman Bharat, Jan Aushadhi Yojana etc. to boost the healthcare sector.Shri Dattatraya said that today, medicine has gone on technology mode and with the help of new research and technology every treatment was possible. But, technology could be further improved by using more and more research work. He said that role of the Pharma sector could not be neglected in the healthcare sector. Statistically, every third pill a patient consumes comes from India, and this was a remarkable success for our country, he added.
He said that Indian pharmaceutical sector industries supply over 50 per cent of global demand for various vaccines, 40 per cent of generic demand in the US and 25 per cent of all medicine in the UK. And, in this way pharmacists have an unprecedented role in managing a healthcare system, he added.“No doubt, good health is central to human happiness and well-being. Healthy populations live longer and they are more productive & thus have a huge impact on the economic progress of any nation”, said the Governor. He said that health was a foundation on which individuals and families flourish, communities prosper and nations thrive.He hoped that in the next two days, the sharing of knowledge, exchange of innovative ideas and envisioning of futuristic trends by health professionals from all over the globe would lead to the preparation of a cohesive and a coordinative roadmap, which could be shared with National Commissions and other policymakers to make this world and its people disease-free and move towards building a New India.Earlier, Prof. Raj Kumar, Vice-chancellor Punjab University welcomed the Governor on the occasion and detailed about the conference.He said that this prestigious conference has brought together nearly 40 speakers in various domains of health from across the world to dwell on the new frontiers of medicine to prevent disease, to cachet at its earliest with advanced diagnostic and screening techniques, new generation of antibiotics, vaccines and gene therapy amongst many others.