Norway Eyes Stronger Ties with India as Digital Health Success Gains Global Attention

Reaffirming Norway's commitment to universal health coverage and global health equity, Vestre said that the two nations share a long-term vision that is likely to become even more relevant over the next decade as technologies reshape health systems worldwide.

Norway's Health and Care Services Minister Jan Christian Vestre has signalled a fresh push to deepen cooperation with India, as he described India's achievements in digital health as a global benchmark, underlining that New Delhi's ability to deploy digital services at scale has stood out internationally.

Norway’s Health Minister has been in India recently, engaging in high-level discussions on digital health collaboration. While here, he has praised India’s achievements in digital infrastructure and also participated in forums highlighting cooperation in areas like marine pollution and innovation

He has said that his government is eager to align its health-sector priorities with India's fast-evolving digital ecosystem and that the transformation brought about by initiatives such as Ayushman Bharat, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), and India's broader push for health-sector innovation has created a model which many nations now study with great interest.

He has identified India's creation of a comprehensive digital public infrastructure reaching more than a billion people as one important milestone that attracted international attention.

"India's population-scale digital public infrastructure and AI-led health innovations are nothing short of incredible," Vestre said, pointing out that Norway is looking forward to learning from and collaborating with India.

"Countries around the world have taken notice of how India has built a fully digital public infrastructure," he said. "Digitizing services and bringing them seamlessly to people at population scale - the biggest in the world - is nothing short of incredible. The world, including Norway, has so much to learn from your approach."

Vestre has also underlined that India was one of the first countries to use AI-driven language models in healthcare delivery, which is in line with Norway's priorities in digital health and artificial intelligence.

"Norway is investing heavily not only in AI research but also in how we can democratize the benefits of AI," he said. "As Health Minister, I am particularly interested in how we can use AI to accelerate diagnostics, treatments and patient care."

Vestre described his engagement with Nadda as “a point of departure” for exploring new avenues of cooperation shaped by shifting disease profiles, climate-linked health challenges, demographic changes, and emerging technologies.

"Despite our differences in size, our nations have much to offer each other," he said. "As we move forward, I hope we may leverage our strengths and opportunities for a shared commitment to global health and innovative and sustainable development of health services. "

Reaffirming Norway's commitment to universal health coverage and global health equity, he has said the two nations share a long-term vision that is likely to become even more relevant over the next decade as technologies reshape health systems worldwide.

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