'Tulsi Bhai': PM Modi Gives Gujarati Name To WHO Chief At Global AYUSH Summit

Addressing the audience at the summit, Modi said Dr Tedros told him in the morning that the latter feels like a Gujarati.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (left) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) | Credit: PTI

New Delhi: At the Global AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) Investment and Innovation Summit held on Wednesday, April 20, in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a Gujarati name "Tulsi Bhai" to World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. 

Addressing the audience at the summit, Modi said Dr Tedros told him in the morning that the latter feels like a Gujarati. The prime minister further said that the WHO chief had asked Modi to give Tedros a Gujarati name. 

Modi said at the event that today, on the land of Mahatma Gandhi, he would like to give Dr Tedros the name "Tulsi Bhai".

(Watch PM Modi naming WHO Chief at 1:26:30)

After this, the prime minister went on to appreciate the aesthetic and medicinal significance of the aromatic herb Tulsi, the common name for Ocimum tenuiflorum. He was heard saying in the event's live stream that the present generation is forgetting the importance of Tulsi. However, it has been an age-old tradition to plant Tulsi at home and worship it, the prime minister said. 

Tulsi has been an important part of India's spiritual heritage, Modi added. 

He further said that the WHO chief has always made efforts to speak in Gujarati, and expressed his delight at calling Dr Tedros "Tulsi Bhai". 

At the summit, the prime minister also said that India is going to introduce a special AYUSH visa category for foreign nationals who want to come to India to take advantage of AYUSH therapy.

He said that a special AYUSH mark will be made, which will be applied to the highest quality AYUSH products made in India. 

The prime minister asserted that it is very important for the farmers involved in growing medicinal plants to get the facility to easily connect with the market. In order to achieve this, the government is working on the modernisation and expansion of the AYUSH e-marketplace, he said.

The Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit is a three-day event which started on Wednesday, April 20. It aims to advocate global understanding of AYUSH education, research, innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustained health across all AYUSH systems. 

The objective of the summit is to bring together India's key startups, entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers, and other national and international stakeholders for a specially curated event on innovation, and to make India a global AYUSH destination for entrepreneurship.

The summit concludes on Friday, April 22.