India will host the 16th BRICS health ministers’ meeting in Chandigarh from July 22 to 24, with nine key areas of health in focus, including collaborative research on tuberculosis, prevention and response to mass infectious diseases, digital health, and promotion of mental well-being.
Event Context
The theme of this year’s health ministers’ meeting is Building for resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability’. The nine priority areas around people-centric health concerns were identified in the BRICS 2025 summit at Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
Match Outlook
The three-day event will be attended by 11 member nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Together, the 11 BRICS countries account for nearly half of the world’s population and around 40% of the global GDP.
Union health secretary Punya Salila Srivastava on Tuesday said the meeting is being held to strengthen collaboration and foster strategic partnership to address common health challenges and improve the health and well-being of people of BRICS nations. “Emphasis will be laid on communicable and non-communicable diseases, pandemic preparedness, collaborative research work on TB, digital health architecture, access to affordable medicines, promotion of universal health coverage, etc,” she said. Union secretary of ministry of AYUSH, Vaidya Rajesh Katoch was also present.
“These priorities will be translated into concrete initiatives at the BRICS health ministers’ meeting for advancing collective action to address shared public health concerns among BRICS nations,” Srivastava said.
The official programme will commence on July 22, followed by the health ministers’ meeting on July 23, chaired by Union health and family welfare minister Jagat Prakash Nadda.
