The Central and state governments should increase their health budgets to meet the national policy target of 2.5% of the GDP by 2025 from the current level of 1.2%, said Dr.Vinod K. Paul, Member, NITI Aayog while delivering the convocation address at Sri Ramachandra University here.

The states, contributing two thirds of government spending on health, should budget at least 8% on health sector. The national health policy 2017 envisages a network of 1,50,000 health and wellness centers to provide comprehensive primary health across the country, of which two thirds will be for primary care, so that the secondary care which is expensive, distant and unaffordable can be avoided. While India has made significant progress in health since independence its current life expectancy is only 68 years as against 75+ of other emerging economies, he said.

According to Dr.Paul, while India has achieved greatness in several fields at the global level, it is yet to realize its potential in medical sciences. He urged Sri Ramachandra University to be a pioneer in exploring frontiers of healthcare delivery, discovering new cures and exploring new paradigms for preventing disease and creating wellness. SRU should be a power house of biomedical research and a role model to others, he added.

He urged young medical graduates to join academics and help preserve people’s faith of honesty and competence. He gave away 83 gold medals to meritorious students.

The Chancellor of the university, V.R.Venkataachalam conferred the degrees and distributed certificates to over 770 graduates including two D.Scs, 12 PhDs and 22 super specialties.

The VC said, two new courses, B.Sc Medical Microbiology and Applied Molecular Biology & Occupational Therapy, were started during the year and many new technologies added to Allied Health Sciences. Sri Ramachandra University has just started 13 new six and three months courses under the government of India’s health sector skill council.

R.V. Sengutuvan, Pro Chancellor, Dr. S. P. Thyagarajan, Dean Research, Dr. Mahesh Vakamudi, Dean of Faculties, Dr.A.Ravikumar, Dean Education, Dr.S.Anandan, Dean Medical College, Dr. D. Prathiba, Controller of Examinations and V. Swaminathan, Registrar were among those who participated in the convocation.