The third meeting of the Scientific Steering Committee on One Health under the chairmanship of Prof. Ajay K. Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India for the National One Health Mission, was held on August 26, 2025 in Vigyan Bhawan Annexe, New Delhi.

​​NOHM is a cross-ministerial effort involving 13 ministries/departments in a whole-of-government approach. This meeting marked the inclusion of three more ministries/Departments viz. Ministry of Earth Sciences, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Department of Fisheries.

The meeting was attended by Dr. Rajiv Bahl, Secretary, Department of Health (DHR) and DG Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR); Dr. Parvinder Maini, Scientific Secretary, Office of PSA; Dr. M. Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences; Shri Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH; Dr. Rajesh Gokhale, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT); Dr V. Narayanan, Chairman, ISRO; Dr. Rajan Khobragade, Additional Chief Secretary (Health), Kerala; Dr. Ranjan Das, Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC); senior representatives from Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; ICMR; Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC); Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD); Department of Biotechnology (DBT); Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Department of Science and Technology (DST); Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR); Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO); National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS); Ministry of Ayush; NCDC; National Institute for One Health (NIOH); Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), Department of Space (DoS), National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA); Department of Fisheries; Office of PSA, and Kerala & Gujarat state representatives.

The Chair in his opening remarks underlined that One Health is a multi-sectoral mission drawing strength from the diverse expertise of public health, animal husbandry, agriculture, and environment sectors. He further stated that the mission is a unique example bringing together multiple departments and ministries together for strengthening the country’s preparedness for health challenges through the one health approach.

The discussion began on the progress made since the last meeting of the committee. Dr. Sangeeta Agarwal, Scientist F, O/o PSA presented the updates on State and Union Territory (UT) engagements, cross linking between states for knowledge sharing, capacity building and inter-sectoral coordination. A suggested multi-tiered governance structure for implementing One Health in the States/UTs was presented to the committee for inputs. Further, inter-state linkages that were created for community engagement and sharing of best practices on priority zoonotic diseases between the states of Assam-Uttar Pradesh and Goa-Karnataka were highlighted.

The first State/ Union Territory engagement workshop under the National One Health Mission was held on June 09, 2025. The report of the workshop was released during the meeting which includes the key insights and recommendations which offers a clear understanding of the strengths, challenges and immediate opportunities at the State/UT level.

The key areas of discussion included a proposal for a suggestive tiered governance model spanning state-district-panchayat levels; initiatives taken for inter-state linkages for cross-learnings; development of a unified e-learning module on One Health for state/UT officials and the efforts towards engagement of youth through hackathons/ideathons and allied activities for finding solutions for One Health related issues at regional-level.

Additionally, key updates from the four Advisory and Review (A&R) committees on One Health was presented by the chairs/ convenor of the respective committees i.e Bio-Safety Level (BSL) 3/4 Laboratory Network (Chaired by Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Madhuri Kanitkar), Technology enhanced integrated surveillance and outbreak investigation (Chaired by Dr. N. K. Arora), Research and Development on medical countermeasures (Chaired by Dr. Renu Swarup) and Integration of databases and data sharing (Chaired by Dr. Vijay Chandru).

Prof. Sood concluded that the richness of the committee lies in the collective knowledge of its members and encouraged open discussions to identify synergies and address gaps. He highlighted that the mission has made significant progress and would gain further momentum from the recommendations for development of suggestive governance frameworks, National Outbreak Data Repository, scaling up wastewater surveillance, strengthening surveillance systems, capacity building, laboratory strengthening through inclusion of suitable laboratory in the network, rolling out of a unified e-learning module for state and UT officials and engagement of youth in One Health.

These activities would build a One Health framework that is national in scope and global in its significance.

 

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MJPS/ST

(Release ID: 2161041)