Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the spending in health sector in 12th Five Year Plan will go up by three times .He said more medical and nursing colleges are needed to overcome a shortage of trained human resources in the sector. Speaking at the foundation stone laying of the Lady Hardinge Medical College project in New Delhi today , the prime minister said that health indicators reflected a country’s overall well-being. He said the government is paying more attention to medical education.

Dr. Singh pointed out that in the last three years, the number of MBBS seats in medical colleges rose by over 30 percent and the seats for post-graduate programmes by 51 percent. The prime minister said that nutrition, drinking water, sanitation, housing and education, particularly of the girl child, were increasingly being underlined as the social determinants of health. He added that generic drugs would be made available free in all public hospitals across the country to help the poor reduce their out of pocket expenditure on health.

He said declining infant mortality rate is a good news and efforts to further bring down this rate will continue with renewed energy and focus. Dr. Singh also recalled India's achievement in eradicating polio.