India, UK hold talks to expand cooperation in health sector

Aiming to expand their cooperation in  health sector, India and the UK on Monday held talks to indentify more partnerships at national and state levels to further the collaboration.

Health and Family Welfare Secretary Lov Verma held talks with Permanent Secretary, Department of Health, the UK, Una O Brien and decided to expand the activities under the MoU both the countries had signed in 2013, an official statement said. The priority of the partnership between the two governments has been improvement of maternal and child health and reducing the burden of communicable diseases.  "The purpose of the bilateral meeting was to further expand the activities under the MoU and the timelines to indentify more institutional partnerships to further the collaboration in specific areas, to suggest nominations to a Joint Working Group...," it said.

They also decided to look at the governance arrangements to manage the action and implementation plans under the MoU and discuss other areas of mutual interest, it said.  The MoU comprises development of a joint work programme with a set of defined, time-specified activities over a five- year period, which aim to improve collaboration between India and the UK, the statement said.

Indian–British relations are foreign relations between India and the United Kingdom. India has a high commission in London and two consulates-general in Birmingham and Edinburgh. The United Kingdom has a high commission in New Delhi and five deputy high commissions in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Both countries are full members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Since 1947, relations between the two countries have been mostly friendly and there are many areas in which both India and the UK seek stronger ties for mutual benefit.

There are also strong cultural and social ties between the two nations. In India, English is one of the official languages, and Cricket is the most popular sport. In the UK, Indian Cuisine is hugely popular. Britain imports most of its tea from India, and there are a number of words of Indian origin in the English language. India is the third largest investor in the British economy. The UK has an ethnic Indian population of over 1.6 million. Prime Minister David Cameron described Indian – British relations as the "New Special Relationship" in 2010.