Silver Linings

Context: Rising opportunities in healthcare could replicate the IT sector’s success.

Healthcare as a new IT Sector

• Employment opportunity: Post COVID production will be ramping up in critical areas like PCR testing kits, vaccines and drugs, ventilators, genome sequencing and personal protection equipment.
• Multiple entry point levels for capital and labour: hospitals, pharmaceuticals, medical education, biomedical research and development, ancillary equipment manufacture, diagnostics, grassroots health workers, health insurance, telemedicine, and even medical tourism.
• Niche area for public and private sector investors.
• Capital intensive nature of business
• Gestation period between investment and payback.

Gaps in Healthcare Infrastructure

• Healthcare expenditure: Minimal (1% of GDP).
• Insufficient healthcare infrastructure: 0.7 beds per 1,000 population against an average of 2.4
• Healthcare professional deficit.

Way Forward

• Strengthening rural healthcare apparatus: by hiring medical professionals to ensure employment opportunities.
• Ramping up medical education: to lessen global medical profession deficit.
• Reduced input costs in manufacturing: Atmanirbharta in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API).
• Comprehensive health and industrial policies: like tax holidays.