PM Narendra Modi and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the WHO facility foundation event
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus today gave a pleasant surprise to the audience at the foundation stone ceremony of the Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Gujarat's Jamnagar, when he greeted the people who had gathered there in Gujarati.
The World Health Organisation's (WHO) Global Centre for Traditional Medicine, or GCTM, aims to blend ancient practices with modern science.
"Namaskar," Mr Ghebreyesus said, folding his hands. He smiles, and then said, "Kem chho... (how are you)."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the audience clapped to the WHO chief's greetings in the local language.
The GCTM knowledge hub is intended to create a body of reliable evidence and data on traditional medicine practices and products to help inform standards and the cost-effective use of methods that go outside conventional medicine.
The hub will be temporarily housed at the Institute Teaching and Research in Ayurveda in Jamnagar until the new 35-acre site in the city is completed in 2024.
"For many millions of people around the world, traditional medicine is the first port of call to treat many diseases," Mr Ghebreyesus said. "The WHO GCTM that we are launching will help to harness the power of science to strengthen the evidence base for traditional medicine," he said, to optimise its use for health and wellbeing around the world.
India has put $250 million into the project, with PM Modi saying traditional medicine encompasses a holistic science of life and would gain global importance in the coming 30 years.
"Our traditional medicine is a repository of hundreds of years of accumulated knowledge," he said. "Going forward, we must use technology to create a global database, repository of traditional medicine practices," to help future generations.