The country needs much more doctors, nurses and other heath care professionals than currently available, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said on Friday.

The other problem is that out of the total medical schools in the country, a majority is concentrated in the south Indian states while the north, specially states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, have very few such schools, he said.

In order to address this problem, "we plan to relax norms for setting up medical colleges in these states so that private parties show interest in establishing such schools through public-private partnerships," Ramadoss said.

The minister also talked about the ill-effects of mobile phone usage and said he has asked the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct a study on it.

Health had not been given much priority by the government in the last 50 years, he said adding, India had different parameters of progress.

India is a difficult nation to contend with you have emerging India with booming hi-tech cities, the north-south divide and the bulk of impoverished poor India, he said.

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