Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Friday, said that all universities, colleges and other educational institutions should understand their responsibility towards society.
“Higher education institutions should enhance their studies according to the practical needs of society. Instead of relying solely on bookish knowledge to understand practical needs, it is necessary to gain experience in the field and focus on research,” he stated.
The chief minister was presiding over the inaugural session of a three-day national conference jointly organised by the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences and the Faculty of Pharmacy at Mahayogi Gorakhnath University in Gorakhpur, in collaboration with the Translation Biomedical Research Society.
During the commencement of the conference on ‘Advances and Opportunities in Drug Discovery from Natural Products - BioNature Con-2023,’ the chief minister said, “Due to a lack of innovation and research, India lagged behind. However, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last nine years, efforts have been made to improve in this direction, and positive results are now being seen.”
Yogi said that traditional medicine from natural resources was India’s gift to the world. Emphasising mutual coordination among several departments to advance traditional medicine using natural resources, he mentioned that through the collaboration of departments such as Ayurveda, pharmacy, biochemistry, agriculture and medicine from natural resources could attain new heights. He said that people involved in agriculture could contribute significantly to the field of making medicines from natural resources.
He said that along with focusing on the quality of medicines made from natural resources, equal attention must be paid to packaging. He emphasised that merely wrapping Ayurvedic medicines in pouches might not instill confidence in the patient, whereas presenting the medicine in tablet form enhanced trust. Medicines need to be prepared and packaged accordingly, he added.
“The government is building a Pharmaceutical Park on 2,000 acres of land in Lalitpur. Along with this, work is progressing rapidly to develop a Medical Device Park,” Yogi added.
He highlighted the importance of data collection in the current times, stating that doctors and nurses could collect various data related to patients to be used as a basis of major research.
During the conference, the chief minister also shared his experience in controlling encephalitis. He said that from 1977 to 2017, nearly 50,000 children died due to encephalitis. In Japan, a vaccine was developed in 1905, while in India, the vaccine became available in 2005, but its production was insufficient to meet the demand.
“Against the population of about three crore in eastern Uttar Pradesh, only one lakh doses of encephalitis vaccine were available,” he said.
He further explained that after taking charge of the state in 2017, the Health Department was made the nodal agency, and through inter-departmental coordination, the 40-year-old issue was addressed in just four years. The model of encephalitis control also proved beneficial in the successful management of COVID-19 in the state, he added.
The chief minister along with G Satish Reddy and GN Singh offered floral tributes to Bharat Mata, Goddess Saraswati and Guru Gorakhnath.
Others present were Vice-Chancellor of Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University, Poonam Tandon, MLAs Mahendrapal Singh, Vipin Singh, MLC Dharmendra Singh, Principal of BRD Medical College, Ganesh Kumar, Principal of Guru Gorakshanath Institute of Medical Sciences, Manjunath NS, along with more than 250 scientists from 12 states, subject specialists, delegates, conference participants, teachers and students.
Earlier, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated the Skills Laboratory at Guru Shri Gorakshanath College of Nursing. He inspected the laboratory and also observed the facilities here.
