Governor Anandiben Patel said the staunch belief embedded in Indian culture that prevention of disease is better than its cure, the concept of Yoga and the traditions of cleanliness have helped a lot in preventing the epidemic.

Patel said that only doctors have the power to bring smile on the face of suffering humanity. They are an incarnation of God. She expressed her gratitude for the services of the doctors and the medical assistance, cooperation and guidance extended to India by the expatriate doctors of Indian origin during the unprecedented crisis faced by humanity at large, during the Covid pandemic.

Patel was addressing the 39th conference of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), an organization of Indian-origin doctors, virtually from Raj Bhavan, Lucknow. More than 500 Indian origin doctors joined the conference.

Patel said that despite the huge population, the vaccination drive for all is being successfully carried out rapidly in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

She said that under self-reliant India, development works in the health sector and strengthening of infrastructure are being done continuously. There were only six AIIMS medical institutes in the country in the year 2014, which has now increased to 15. In the field of health, the budget allocation in the year 2021-22 has doubled as compared to earlier.

Terming the loss of life in the medical field during the Covid pandemic as unfortunate, Patel paid tribute to them.

She said that the medical community has an important role to play in alleviating the sufferings of humanity and saving lives.

So the doctors should take full care of their health. Keep updating yourself constantly with the new experiments happening in the field of medicine. She said that citizens of Indian origin living in America have maintained constant contact with their motherland and they continue to support the people of India.

Governor Patel said that the Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) has a proud history in the field of medicine, service to humanity and supporting physicians in their profession and efforts to excel. Hundreds of programmes are being run by AAPI in the field of women empowerment, TB free India, clean drinking water projects, global medical education, cancer care etc.

She expressed her gratitude to the organization for the strategic cooperation extended by the organization in providing oxygen concentrators to the whole of India and in meeting the challenge of during the Covid pandemic. Congratulating the organization for its continues progress, she recalled the efforts made in the fields of social service, environment, education and health in the joint partnership of Global Life and to help Thalassemia patients in Gujarat. She expressed hope that AAPI and Global Life organization will continue to cooperate in the same way in the service to humanity.