Union Health Minister JP Nadda has said that the health sector in the country is facing the biggest challenge of controlling communicable, non-communicable and lifestyle diseases. He said, despite progress in health sector, many things are still required to be done. Mr Nadda was addressing the 43rd Annual Conference of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicines, IAPSM at Gandhinagar in Gujarat. <br/><br/>He said the country has made significant progress in the health sector despite the factors like vast population, health being a state subject and low literacy level. Referring to the success of National Health Mission (NHM), Mr.Nadda said the country has partially overcome the challenge of communicable diseases, but the task is unfinished to control the non-communicable diseases and lifestyle diseases. <br/><br/>He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Swachh Bharat' programme is aimed at making India healthy. On the issue of budget allocated to the health sector, Union Health Minister said that budget is not a constraint, but many states have not been able to utilize the funds allotted to them. <br/><br/>Speaking on the occasion, World Health Organization's India representative Hank Bakedam said that though India has done well in checking the communicable diseases, much needs to be done to achieve universal health care goals. He said the government should understand that investing in health is investing in economy. <br/><br/>Gujarat Health Minister Nitin Patel also spoke on this occasion. Nearly 5,000 representatives from the country including health expert are participating in 3 day conference.