VP’s speech at the 64th Convocation of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS) at AIIMS, Jodhpur.
Advertisement..
MAA ENT Hospitals’ Free Cochlear Implant Program Under the ADIP Scheme.
Get more details from Best E.N.T. Hospitals In Hyderabad – MAA E.N.T.
News continued…
Good evening all of you,
Distinguished fellows, members, associate members, and distinguished audience. For me, who is basically drawn from a professional field, a legal profession, it is an absolute honour to associate with the 64th Convocation and NAMSCON 2024 and it has a contemporaneously relevant theme “One-Health: Let us Collaborate to Take Care of our Health” I again express my deep sense of gratitude to Padma Bhushan, Dr. Sarin, for making this opportunity available to me.
Friends, when I came here, I had the occasion to go through the list of the fellows, distinguished fellows of this great institution. It is indeed a befitting recognition to be a fellow of NAMS and foremost in this category, we will find a distinguished scientist who adorned the high office of President of India, Dr. A.P.G. Abdul Kalam. From our own state, Rajasthan, we had many in the illustrious category, I would particularly make reference to Dr. K C Gangwal, Dr. S. R. Dharker, Dr. Gautam Shiv Kumar Sharma, and Dr. Shital Raj Mehta. For the simple reason I had the occasion to know them personally and to get benefit out of their counsel.
Distinguished audience, I seek to avail the opportunity to applaud Dr. Siddharth Deo Manav, an alumnus of Saini School, Chittorgarh, my alma mater, who donated his dead body to this institution for study and research.
Friends, just a few months back at Jaipur, at an event organised by Jain social groups(JSC), Central Sansthan Jaipur, and Dadhichi Deh Dan Samiti Delhi. I had indicated that organ donation is the highest moral exemplification of human nature and citizens should make conscious efforts towards it. Organ donation as a tool of exploitation of the vulnerable for commercial gain is despicable and slur on humanity. We need to promote organ donation. It gives life to those who lose hope of life and therefore, I thought it fit to recognise what has been done by Dr. Siddharth Deo Manav.
To the newly inducted fellows, you stand amongst India’s medical luminaries. This fellowship, bestowed through meticulous peer review and peer review friends, is the most difficult because it is objective. It is premised on their great experience. They would never want an inclusion of someone who is not really deserving. So, peer review acknowledges your outstanding contributions to biomedical sciences and medical education. Fellows, consider this not your destination, but a milestone in your journey of service to humanity.
I am reminded on this occasion what has been often quoted. “The only constant is the change.” This emanates from a philosopher in Pre-Socratic era, Heraclitus. He buttressed it by an example. “The same person cannot enter the same river twice but neither the person is the same, nor the river is the same.” and therefore, any recognition or fellowship must spur you to keep on learning. Anyone who walks out of an institution must never carry an impression that that is the end of learning. According to me, learning never stops, it is lifelong.
Friends, let us look around our Bharat at the moment in global perspective. There has been exponential economic upsurge. My generation never dreamt of it, never conceived it, never thought it was possible but we are having exponential economic upsurge and phenomenal infrastructure growth in last few years, this has made Bharat, who once was part of fragile five economies, as big five global economies, on way to becoming third largest global economy ahead of Japan and Germany in next year or two. This has generated an atmosphere of hope and possibility in the country.
Our aspirations have taken wings and we have in togetherness, chalked out a programme that our Bharat will be a developed Bharat@2047 but friends, this aspirational object, very ambitious, requires eightfold increase in our per capita income. This takes me to something which is of your interest, this is attainable only with our population being healthy and fit. One may be committed, sincere, earnest, gifted, devoted but if that person is not physically healthy, rather than helping the society at large with the dedication and expertise, he would be seeking help. Therefore, it is essential that everyone in the country remains healthy that is the only password to make our journey fructify into our destination Bharat, a developed Nation at 2047. Health is paramount and priority concern as good health is not only necessary for individuals, not for our pursuits, but for the good health of the society. That broadly is also your theme.
Friends, having good health is directly related to your productivity, as I said. If you are not healthy, your productivity will not be optimal. As a matter of fact, it may nosedive rather than helping others, you might be seeking others’ help. हमारे ऋषि-मुनि कह गए हैं, “पहला सुख निरोगी काया They put health as a priority, in precedence to everything else. Health, well-being is fundamental and quintessential to one’s contribution to society. Health, friends, is not just absence of illness but a state of holistic well-being.
Our Vedas, our Puranas, our Upanishads are a goldmine of wisdom and knowledge. We need to bestow attention to them. It emanates from them, “प्रसन्न इन्द्रिय, मन, आत्मन:” The harmony between mind, body, and spirit. That is essential for a person to perform and be a complete human being. atharva veda encyclopaedic, when it comes to health treasure, when it comes to health knowledge and there the stress is “आरोग्यम् मूलम् उत्तमम्” Good health is necessary to realise any goal in life. Therefore, when we have this wisdom emanating from our civilisational depth, we must give the attention it deserves.
http://www.shrilalitambagautirth.org
Friends, medical professionals serve as guardians and their role is all the more significant in Bharat, that is home to one-sixth of humanity. Your concern must be beyond clinical care. You have to engage in advocacy of good health. You have to become educators and public health advocates while I’m talking about you, crisis response has been remarkable. I had the occasion to see it while being governor of the state of West Bengal, when we faced the pandemic.
Remarkable dedication, missionary zeal, braving all personal difficulties to come to the aid of the people who need it but the challenges are there now in health care. The challenges are commercialisation and ethical dilution is required to be addressed. Health care is a divine contribution, health care is service, health care has to be far distanced from commerce and health care is antithetical to exploitation. By and large, our system is in good health but we can’t say as on this date that instances of commercialisation and ethical dilutions are not there.
President had in his brief address, brief for the reason that he wanted to confine to the timeframe, but he was indicating many things that were relevant. NAMS serves a great purpose, it deserves commendation for its vital contribution to India’s health care planning. Their evidence-based guidance has significantly shaped national health policies, medical education reforms, and public health strategies. We all know in a country like ours, policy planning is a very tough job, we need to have credible data. We need to have a thought process. We need to get into a situation where experts apply their mind, this body has done something amazingly commendable. The input has come to me from several quarters,
Congratulations to this body.
Friends, big changes have taken place in this country. A country at the moment of 1.4 billion people. Ayushman Bharat, PM Jan Arogya Yojana, they provide coverage to virtually everyone up to 5 lakhs, 104 million families. Several countries in the world are struggling by this figure but India is a nation that in recent times has attained what to them is astronomical like 500 million Indians were included in the banking sector. The world’s largest exercise, just imagine cooking gas was made available to needy women to the extent of 150 or 170 million free so ours is a country where we have to have an ecosystem that has to operate at a gigantic level and that has been done.
Get best offers from http://www.TrueMeds.in
Our Arogya Mandirs are geometrically increasing, we are having more AIIMS, Medical colleges, number of seats for medical education, Paramedical courses, One offshoot of Ayushman Bharat is that there has been much-needed, required growth for Paramedical services that has taken place. In this situation, India’s healthcare provides science through its remarkable achievements. We happen to be the only country in the world that COVID vaccine was given to 130 billion citizens with indigenous COVID vaccines earning reputation as the world’s pharmacy. We help other nations also and what is more striking, friends, a matter of joy for all of us. The certificate that a person has been vaccinated was never given on paper, It was digital, It was instant. A feat not achieved even by the most developed nation.
