Chamarajanagar (Karnataka), President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday said the citizens of the country can hope to build an Aatmanirbhar Bharat only when "technology, human resources and the access to both comes together".

 

He said this while speaking on the occasion of the inauguration of the newly built Teaching Hospital of the Chamarajanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS), here.

"All technology would be useless if we do not have a robust delivery mechanism. We need to take our health services to the remotest corners of our country. We can hope to build an Aatmanirbhar Bharat only when our technology, human resources and the access to both comes together," he underlined.

He said that with the inauguration of a 450-bedded hospital, it would provide more opportunities for practical experience and training to the budding talent.

He expressed confidence that the hospital with state-of-the-art facilities and adequate infrastructure for critical care and super speciality departments like cardiology, neurology etc would provide better healthcare services to the people of this region.

Pointing to the fact that the area around the CIMS is densely forested and many of the people residing here belong to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the President urged the administration of CIMS and the state government of Karnataka to take steps to make affordable healthcare available to them with the goal of providing universal healthcare for all.

He also said that the Central government has already increased the number of AIIMS from 6 to 22.

As new post-graduate colleges are coming up, the existing post-graduate institutes are also encouraged to become Centres of Excellence. But this infrastructure cannot serve its purpose without human resources, he noted.

The President said that, in his view, two professions that form the twin foundations for the development of a nation are -- healthcare and education.