By Ayushi Agarwal
New Delhi [India], December 8 (ANI): Norway’s Health and Care Services Minister Jan Christian Vestre said his government wants to align its health priorities with India’s fast-developing digital health ecosystem, calling India’s progress in digital infrastructure, population-scale service delivery and artificial intelligence “nothing short of incredible.”
In an interview with ANI, Vestre said both countries share a commitment to using digitalisation to expand equitable healthcare access, pointing to Indian programmes such as Ayushman Bharat, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) and the Make in India initiative for health innovation as central examples.
Describing India’s digital transformation as a global model, he lauded the country’s capacity to build a digital public infrastructure that delivers services effectively to over a billion people. “Countries around the world have taken notice of how India has built a fully digital public infrastructure,” he said. “Digitizing services and bringing them seamlessly to people at population scale — the biggest in the world — is nothing short of incredible. The world, including Norway, has so much to learn from your approach.”
Vestre highlighted India’s early use of AI-driven language models to overcome linguistic barriers in healthcare, noting that this aligns with Norway’s priorities. “Norway is investing heavily not only in AI research but also in how we can democratize the benefits of AI,” he said. “As Health Minister, I am particularly interested in how we can use AI to accelerate diagnostics, treatments and patient care.”
He also praised the longstanding collaboration between India and Norway on digital public goods and welcomed India’s efforts to make such tools globally accessible. Vestre said Norway looks forward to deepening cooperation with a strong digital emphasis.
Vestre’s visit, which included talks with Health Minister J.P. Nadda and participation in the Bengaluru Tech Summit, aimed to boost the India-Norway health partnership following the entry into force of the India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) on October 1. He characterized his meeting with Nadda as a starting point for new areas of cooperation, especially in response to shifting disease patterns, climate effects, demographic changes and rapid technological advances.
While technical teams from both countries will define specific joint projects, Vestre reaffirmed Norway’s support for universal health coverage and primary healthcare — priorities shared in G20 discussions and at the World Health Organization, where Norway currently serves on the Executive Board.
Looking ahead five to ten years, he expressed hope that the India-Norway partnership will strengthen further as new technologies reshape global health delivery. “Despite our differences in size, our nations have much to offer each other,” he said. “As we move forward, I hope we may leverage our strengths and opportunities for a shared commitment to global health and innovative and sustainable development of health services.” (ANI)
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