Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, will be on a three-day visit to Gujarat starting Monday, during which he would take part in a few events along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officials said.
Ghebreyesus will reach Rajkot on April 18, where he will stay overnight before joining PM Modi on Tuesday in Jamnagar for the foundation stone-laying programme of WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM), Rajkot Collector Arun Mahesh Babu said on Sunday.
GCTM will be the first and only global outpost centre for traditional medicine across the world, he said.
The visit is significant in the wake of India on Saturday questioning the World Health Organisation's methodology to estimate Covid -19 mortalities in the country, saying using such a mathematical modelling cannot be applied to estimate the death figures for such a vast nation of geographical size and population.
The Union health ministry issued a statement in response to a New York Times article titled India Is Stalling WHO's Efforts to Make Global Covid Death Toll Public dated April 16, saying the country has on several occasions shared its concerns with the global health body over the methodology used.
Back to WHO chief's trip, on Wednesday, Ghebreyesus will be in Gandhinagar, where PM Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit. The three-day Summit, being organised at Mahatma Mandir, will have around 90 eminent speakers and 100 exhibitors, officials said.
The Summit will help uncover investment potential, and give a fillip to innovation, research and development and start-up ecosystem to the wellness industry. It will help bring together industry leaders, academicians and scholars together and act as a platform for future collaborations, they said.
Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth will also arrive in Rajkot on Monday, where he will be welcomed with cultural events at the airport and also along the route of his cavalcade from the airport, Rajkot Mayor Pradip Dav said.
Several cultural events have been organised in their honour, Dav said.
Several hoardings that read 'Welcome to Gujarat' have been put up along the route of his cavalcade.
