India critical of WHO’s ranking of countries’ health status

The four-day session is being attended by WHO’s director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland. "While I agree with the broad thrust of the argument, I did feel that the exercise of ranking countries could have been avoided. India’s position should have been much higher than the current 112," the Minister said.

While raising political awareness on the importance of health to development and National growth are necessary, WHO should also provide leadership on issues related to the impact of global trade agreements on peoples’ health, he said.

Expressing concern over the inclusion of health under the preview of the World trade Organisation (WTO), he said the impact on developing countries would be profound.

"For poor countries like ours, controlling infectious diseases will become difficult and we fear we may lose some of our hard won gains," Thakur said.