India's G20 Presidency: First Health Working Group Meeting To Commence From 18-20 January At Thiruvananthapuram

The first Health Working Group meeting under India's G20 Presidency will be held from 18 to 20 January in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram.

India assumed presidency of the G20 on 1 December 2022.

India is currently part of the G20 Troika comprising Indonesia, India and Brazil, marking the first time that the troika is consisting of three developing and emerging economies.

The Health Track of the G20 India Presidency will comprise four Health Working Group (HWG) meetings and one Health Ministerial Meeting (HMM).

The meetings will be held in different locations across the country including Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), Goa, Hyderabad (Telangana) and Gandhinagar (Gujarat), highlighting the Prime Minister’s call to action to showcase India’s rich and diverse cultures, the Health Ministry said in a statement on Monday (16 January).

India plans to host a side event along with each HWG meeting to enrich, supplement and support G20 discussions.

These include side events on Medical Value Travel and Digital Health; a workshop on collaborative research on drugs, diagnostics and vaccines; and a co-branded event on Global Centre for Traditional Medicine, the ministry said.

The side event on Medical Value Travel will be held on the sidelines of the first meeting of HWG at Thiruvananthapuram from 18 to 20 January, it added.

The ministry said that as chair of the G20 Presidency, India aims to continue and consolidate health priorities and key takeaways from previous presidencies while highlighting critical areas that require strengthening.

India also aims to achieve convergence in discussions across various multilateral fora engaged in health cooperation and work towards integrated action, it added.