‘India should increase public health spend’

Mysuru: National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog member Vijay Kumar Saraswat said about 60 million Indians are estimated to sink below the poverty line each year due to unaffordable health care expenditure.
Speaking at the seventh annual convocation of JSS University on Friday, Vijay said India’s public financing of health, at 1.04% of GDP, is among the lowest in the world.“Also, at 0.9 hospital bed per 1,000 population, India is well below the global norm of 3 per 1000”, he said.
He said three million people in the country are taking treatment for HIV. “Foreign universities have developed drugs that suppress HIV/AIDS virus. Indian students should strive to develop low cost medicines,” he said.
“I have recommended the government to increase public health expenditure on health. Expenditures on primary health care should account for at least 70% of all health care expenditure,” he said.
Later, 1,096 graduates were conferred with degrees. Forty-one graduates shared 59 medals and PhD degrees were awarded to 18 students.
Certificates were also handed over to students of M Phil (Medicine), 152 students of PG in Pharmacy (M. Pharm) and 20 students of MBA (Hospital Administration)