India aiming to lead global preventive healthcare: Jitendra Singh

Jammu, Nov 21 (PTI) Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday said that India is positioning itself to become a global leader in preventive healthcare and stressed that public-private partnerships (PPP) will play a crucial role in driving innovation in life sciences.

Speaking at the GISICON-2025, the 10th biennial conference of the Gastrointestinal Infection Society of India, held at the Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences and Hospital here, Singh said the PPP model would help build a sustained ecosystem for research and innovation.

"India is now aspiring to emerge as a global leader in preventive healthcare. The public-private partnership is critical for leading innovation in life sciences," Singh said.

Lauding the organisers, Singh noted that the hosting of a major conference in Jammu by a non-government organisation was a “welcome step” towards promoting a research culture in the Union Territory.

“The demarcation of public and private sectors is a thing of the past. The era of collaboration and joint research is making its way into various sectors, including life sciences,” he said, adding that adapting to this new alignment was essential for delivering inclusive healthcare services.

Singh said the private sector was already playing a crucial role in fields such as space, atomic energy and earth sciences. “Now it is making its way into medicine, biotechnology and life sciences,” he said.

Referring to advances in recent years, the minister said India had “come out of the slumber” in life sciences research and was becoming “future-ready” and ensuring the country was no longer seen as a late starter in innovation.

“For India to make a mark at the global level, there are two prerequisites: we need to be consistent and we need to make landmark progress in the related fields,” he said, cautioning that the country “cannot fall back on the laurels of yesterday”.

Singh said the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made “huge advancements” in preventive care. He cited India’s development of the first COVID-19 vaccine and its supply to other nations under 'Vaccine Maitri' as evidence of the country's growing capability.

He also referred to the Department of Biotechnology’s development of an HPV vaccine for cervical cancer prevention, India’s first indigenous antibiotic Nafithromycin, and successful gene therapy trials for haemophilia published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Emphasising the need for stronger PPP collaboration, Singh said such partnerships would “help sustain research and sustainably provide an ecosystem for innovation for future generations.” PTI AB RHL