FM's exclusive speech at Sri Venkateshwara Medical College

Updated on: Thursday, January 12, 2012

Finance Minister, Pranab Mukerjee was recently present at Sri Venkateshwara Medical College in Tirupati to inaugurate a Historic Arch.

Speaking on the occasion, the Finance Minister said, "I am very glad to be here in Tirupati on the occasion of the inaugural of the Historic Arch at Sri Venkateshwara Medical College and Hospital. I had the privilege of laying the foundation stone of the Hospital in 2007 and I am happy to be a part of todays function. I am told that Sri Venkateshwara Medical College celebrated its Golden Jubilee last year and has produced 5000 doctors so far. Our needs are large; we need to travel further on this path, creating better health care facilities for people through well equipped medical institutions and good quality education.

The last decade saw the Indian economy grow at a fast pace. Between 2005 and 2008, the economy grew at about 9.5 per cent per annum. The global financial crisis brought the growth down to 6.8 per cent in 2008-09. This was followed by a strong recovery in the subsequent two years with the economy registering a GDP growth of over 8 per cent. In the current year, I must admit to some disappointment at the slowdown in our growth performance. In the first half of this year India grew at 7.3 per cent. Even with this figure India remains a growth leader in the world. We hope to recover some of the loss in growth momentum in the coming months.

It is important that with higher growth, we were able to mobilize greater resources for the inclusive agenda which was the main theme of the Eleventh Plan that concludes this year, and continues to be the focus area for the Twelfth Plan. While we have achieved significant improvement in terms of economic indicators, our human development indicators, though improving over time, are still very low in international comparisons.

Eleventh Plan had envisaged that the public sector allocation for the health sector would be at least 2 per cent of the GDP, the actual expenditure was around 1 per cent and this has not changed significantly between the initial year of the plan and the terminal year. The total expenditure on health accounts for nearly 4.5 per cent of GDP and around four-fifths of this is accounted for by the private sector. Within private sector, out of pocket expenses of the inpiduals form the largest share.

The main thrust area of the Eleventh Five Year Plan was greater attention to health infrastructure and human resources particularly in the rural areas, to be achieved through the National Rural Health Mission. The country witnessed improved access to health infrastructure and human resources in the health sector at the grass-root level. Consequently the infant mortality rate declined from 58 in 2005 to 50 in 2009. There has been a reduction in total fertility rate from 2.9 in 2005 to 2.6 in 2009. Maternal mortality has also registered a significant decline. The approach paper to the Twelfth Plan has rightly emphasized that the plan allocation for health the sector should be 2.5 to 3 percent of the GDP.

Greater attention is being paid to the secondary and tertiary health care. Under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), construction of 6 AIIMS like institutes and upgradation of 13 medical colleges has been initiated in Phase-I and bulk of the work relating to these will be completed by the time Eleventh Plan period comes to an end. Several government hospitals are also being upgraded.

A number of steps have been taken to address the existing unmet need of specialists and the prospective demand for faculty for the new medical colleges. Besides, the teacher-student ratio has been revised from 1:1 to 1:2 These steps, along with the up-gradation of Medical Colleges under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, have increased the number of seats at post-graduate level from about 13,500 a year ago, to around 24,000 by the end of the Plan period.

The achievement of good human development outcomes, particularly those related to education and health is critically dependent on the development and empowerment of women and girls in the country. Gender Budgeting is a initiative which encompasses incorporating a gender perspective and sensitivity at all levels and stages of developmental planning and implementation, and is a means for translating gender commitments into budgetary commitments to meet womens specific needs.

The commitment of Government of India to the concerns of ordinary citizens in general and poor in particular is reflected in the approach adopted to create entitlements backed by legal statutes. Thus we have brought the Right to Information, Right to Education, and Right employment by way of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee. The right to Food is in the process of being enacted. I am aware that Andhra Pradesh has taken a lead already in this regard by providing rice to the poor at Re1/kg.

I am also informed that about Rs.18 crore has been earmarked for Sri Venkateswara Medical College as a part of the initiative to create a super specialty hospital. Under the leadership of Shri Kiran Kumar Reddy, CM of Andhra Pradesh a number of initiatives at the State level have been taken and for women there is a new “Stree Shakti” a bank with Rs.1000 crore capital that would finance women SHGs with interest at 3 per cent. In the times to come with greater availability of resources for priority areas, we could help accelerate the inclusive development in India.

Let me conclude by wishing you all the very best in all your endeavours."

FM's exclusive speech at Sri Venkateshwara Medical College

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