During the Indo-Sweden health week, Indian health authorities will offer up its proficiency in Ayurveda and yoga to Sweden.

Swedish Minister for Elderly Care and Public Health Maria Larsson and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad kicked off Indo-Swedish Health Week on Monday.

Mr. Azad stated that countries such as France, Brazil, Chile, Canada, United States and Argentina have already asked for trainers and trained manpower in this field.

"Sweden may also find Ayurveda and yoga to be quite useful and beneficial in the public health area," Azad said.

India and Sweden would share their traditionalistic strengths during the event to honor the first anniversary of the signing of the MoU between the two nations.

Calling upon Sweden to be an associate in building up India's health infrastructure, Azad stated that larger investment was anticipated particularly in diagnostics and pharmaceuticals.

"The potential for investments is huge. We would, however, like the partnerships to be structured in a way that allows transfer of technology leading to sustainable capacity building," he said.

He offered up the country's expertise in traditional medications including yoga and ayurveda plus high-quality and cheap generic drugs.

He also said that India has the largest number of US FDA sanctioned medications outside USA and could be a potential exporter to Swedish market.

"Growth of cheap generic drug industry is also of vital interest for world health as all health-related millennium development goals in the developing countries are dependent on it."

Defining the measures taken by Indian health authorities in bettering public health, Mr. Azad stated that it had been decided to take account of registration of all expecting women and newborns.

There are approximately 27 million pregnancies annually and registration will consist of information including name, address and confirmable telephone number to determine the status of prenatal and postpartum care at each and every stage.

As part of Indo-Swedish Health Week, thematic workshops will take place on anti-biotic resistance, pharmaceutics, public health, alcohol, youth health and public health research.