Health

Healthcare services in India are slowly coming of age. A leading financial daily has already labeled healthcare as the single fastest growing private consumption category in India.

Healthcare services in India are slowly coming of age. A leading financial daily has already labeled healthcare as the single fastest growing private consumption category in India. India has several core advantages in healthcare - a network of free public sector hospitals in India, staffed by some of the world's best doctors trained in world class institutions like AIIMS, AFMC etc, who have probably the most varied clinical exposure in the world, and a flourishing pharmaceutical industry.

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More recently, a new era of corporate and specialty state of the art hospitals has been ushered in with the launching of the Apollo Hospitals under Dr. Pratap C. Reddy and Escorts Hospital under Dr. Naresh Trehan, besides a number of other specialty hospitals and clinics established by NRIs/PIOs in various parts of the country.

While these do not reflect purely philanthropic aspirations, they demonstrate the enormous potential for developing a self-sustaining and financially viable healthcare sector in India.

Its multiplier effects, its potential for both saving and generating foreign exchange as more foreigners turn to India as an option for complicated and expensive surgeries - cannot be underestimated. This would also take some of the pressure off government hospitals, which are struggling to cope with the vast demand, and generate employment and expertise.

The Indian Diaspora has earned a name for itself all over the world in the field of medicine. The High Level Committee noted that the Indian Diaspora is already actively involved in the development of healthcare in India, and that there is enormous potential for increasing this cooperation.

The Committee strongly felt that with the right policies and government support, the Indian healthcare sector was poised for a major breakthrough and that the full cooperation of our talented Diaspora should be sought in developing the Indian healthcare sector, eventually to meet world standards.

The Committee urged that the recommendations, based on a Report of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on the role of NRIs/ PIOs in Healthcare prepared for the Committee, which are summarised below, are followed up expeditiously.

1. The Government should create an investor-friendly environment, act as a facilitator for investments and remove procedural delays inhibiting FDI in the health sector. Accordingly "Hospitals", which are currently treated as "industry", should be accorded the status of "infrastructure" (in economic terminology medical care is already considered social infrastructure). Specific measures to attract NRI/PIO investment in the healthcare sector include

(i) a one-window clearance system;

(ii) preferential tax rates

(iii) land allotment at moderate rates

(iv) charging of lower tariff rates for water and electricity;

(v) concessional funding by financial institutions;

(vi) reduction and simplification of existing import duties on medical equipment; and

(vii) joint consultations and collaboration between various stakeholders - NRIs/PIOs, the private sector and the Government in framing of health sector policies.

2. The Indian corporate sector should also be encouraged to collaborate with NRIs/PIOs in the domestic manufacture of high-tech medical equipment and in the setting up of super specialty hospitals, including in the Export Processing Zones and backward areas, where tax benefits are either available or can be extended. NRIs/PIOs should be associated in the active promotion of ayurveda, traditional and herbal medicines and herbal cosmetics and Yoga abroad. Recognition should be sought for ayurvedic and traditional practices and medicines abroad.

3. The voluntary work of the NRI/PIO medical and paramedical professionals and volunteers should be facilitated;

4. To utilise the expertise of NRI/PIO doctors by developing an institutional mechanism for interaction with scientific organizations in India, an International Advisory Committee with NRI/PIO members and their Indian counterparts should be formed and the Government of India should extend its full support to projects recommended by the International Advisory Committee