scholarly journals Investment Opportunities in India's Healthcare Sector

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakesh Sarwal ◽  
Urvashi Prasad ◽  
K. Madan Gopal ◽  
Shoyabahmed Kalal ◽  
Deepyot Kaur ◽  
...  

India’s healthcare industry has been growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of around 22% since 2016. At this rate, it is expected to reach USD 372 Billion in 2022. Healthcare has become one of the largest sectors of the Indian economy, in terms of both revenue and employment. In 2015, the healthcare sector became the fifth largest employer, employing 4.7 Million people directly. As per estimates by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) healthcare can generate 2.7 Million additional jobs in India between 2017-22 -- over 500,000 new jobs per year. India’s healthcare industry comprises hospitals, medical devices and equipment, health insurance, clinical trials, telemedicine and medical tourism. These market segments are expected to diversify as an ageing population with a growing middle class increasingly favours preventative healthcare. Moreover, the rising proportion of lifestyle diseases caused by high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, poor diet and alcohol consumption in urban areas is boosting demand for specialised care services. In addition to these demographic and epidemiological trends, COVID-19 is likely to catalyse long-term changes in attitudes towards personal health and hygiene, health insurance, fitness and nutrition as well as health monitoring and medical check-ups. The pandemic has also accelerated the adoption of digital technologies, including telemedicine. Further, there is a growing emphasis on and emergence of Public-Private Partnership models in India’s healthcare sector. The country’s relative cost competitiveness and availability of skilled labour are also making it an increasingly favoured destination for Medical Value Travel. On the policy front, the Indian Government is undertaking deep structural and sustained reforms to strengthen the healthcare sector; it has also announced conducive policies for encouraging Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). In fact, India’s FDI regime has been liberalised extensively. Currently, FDI is permitted up to 100% under the automatic route (i.e., the non resident investor or Indian company does not require approval from the Government of India for the investment) in the hospital sector and in the manufacture of medical devices. In the pharmaceutical sector, FDI is permitted up to 100% in greenfield projects and 74% in brownfield projects under the automatic route. India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing emerging economies over the last two decades, receiving large FDI inflows, which have grown from USD 2.5 Billion in 2000-01 to USD 50 Billion in 2019-20. The healthcare sector, in particular, has received heightened interest from investors over the last few years, with the transaction value increasing from USD 94 Million (2011) to USD 1,275 Million (2016) – a jump of over 13.5 times. All of these factors together create several opportunities for investment in India’s healthcare industry.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arvind Chhabra ◽  
Mehak Munjal ◽  
Prabhu Chandra Mishra ◽  
Kritika Singh ◽  
Debjanee Das ◽  
...  

PurposeThe novel coronavirus has not only caused significant illness and loss of life, it has caused major disruption at local, national and global levels. While the healthcare industry is experiencing growth during the pandemic, disruption to travel has affected medical tourism. This article considers the short-term factors affecting medical tourism and how they could be mitigated by incorporating technological advances to secure long-term growth.Design/methodology/approachThe study examines data provided by the Indian government as well as from non-government sources available in the public domain to review the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on medical tourism. The authors also examine data on technological advances in the healthcare industry that could help to reduce the impact of the pandemic.FindingsThis study’s findings show that while in-person services have been seriously impacted in the short term, technological adaptation of medical services to facilitate remote medical consultation has significantly increased. This has enlarged the business opportunities available to hospitals and general practitioners, and it could be leveraged to enhance medical tourism.Originality/valueThe article provides an analysis of the impact of the pandemic on medical tourism and how technology could be used to overcome short-term negative impacts and support longer-term development.


Author(s):  
Khentsze Lyu

This article reviews the health insurance reforms in China for the period from 2002 to the present. It stated that 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China introduced significant amendments to health insurance system, balancing the negative impact of capitalist mechanisms, on the one hand, and justice and equality – on the other. This stage of development in China’s healthcare insurance system is described as the “second generation” in healthcare system, characterized with the change of government’s role in allocation of resources in healthcare sector: proliferation of “wild capitalism” in medicine is replaced with the concept of granting freedom to the market mechanisms under the government supervision. The reforms of PRC government in the area of health have a clear social focus. The state takes over responsibility for health of the citizens, which was released to a free market in the “new course” of the 1980s – 1990s. At the same time, the former paternalistic scheme is replaced by the equal system of interaction between society and the government. In all cases, the insurance funds are formed out of personal deposits of the citizens and deposits of local and central authorities. Municipalities are responsible for majority of decisions in the area of development of insurance schemes. The government’s role consists in establishment of minimum deposits and maximum coverage. This is how the central authorities, local administration and citizens are involved in insurance schemes on equal terms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 255 ◽  
pp. 04005
Author(s):  
Paul K.Y. Siu ◽  
K.L. Choy ◽  
H.Y. Lam

Due to the advancement of living standard and medical technologies, the life expectancy of people is further extended which brings tremendous impact to the society in the near future. The ageing population not only increases the pressure to public healthcare services, but also brings urgent needs in long term healthcare resources allocation planning in the society. This paper presents an Elderly Behaviour Analytics Model (EBAM) to identify the hospital healthcare service preferences of elderly for the future planning of healthcare industry. By conducting an elderly-targeted survey, the collected data is analysed to understand the factors affecting the decision of elderly to acquire healthcare services in hospitals. The model applies the genetic algorithm-guided clustering-based association rule mining approach for the segmentation of hospital service preferences of the elderly, and, the identification of relationship between personal characteristics within each cluster. This research study contributes to the understanding the actual healthcare needs of elderly which allows the government and healthcare service providers to adjust or modify the elderly policies and service content.


Author(s):  
Sheshadri Chatterjee ◽  
Michael S. Dohan

The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of the issues related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in the Indian healthcare sector and provide input to policy makers. A qualitative approach has been used in this study to identify government initiatives, opportunities and challenges for applications of AI. , and suggests improvements in policy areas relevant to AI in healthcare. The study helps by providing comprehensive inputs for framing policy on AI in healthcare industry in India. The study also highlights that that if the proper actions are taken to overcome the various challenges associated with applications of AI in healthcare sector in India by the government, then the healthcare sector will immensely benefit. This article has taken an attempt to provide inputs concerning to policy initiatives, challenges and recommendations for improving healthcare system of India using different applications of AI.


Author(s):  
Albert A. Okunade ◽  
Ahmad Reshad Osmani

Healthcare cost encompasses expenditures on the totality of scarce resources (implicit and explicit) given up (or allocated) to produce healthcare goods (e.g., drugs and medical devices) and services (e.g., hospital care and physician office services are major components). Healthcare cost accounting components (sources and uses of funds) tend to differ but can be similar enough across most of the world countries. The healthcare cost concept usually differs for consumers, politicians and health policy decision-makers, health insurers, employers, and the government. All else given, inefficient healthcare production implies higher economic cost and lower productivity of the resources deployed in the process. Healthcare productivity varies across health systems of the world countries, the production technologies used, regulatory instruments, and institutional settings. Healthcare production often involves some specific (e.g., drugs and medical devices, information and communication technologies) or general technology for diagnosing, treating, or curing diseases in order to improve or restore human health conditions. In the last half century, the different healthcare systems of the world countries have undergone fundamental transformations in the structural designs, institutional regulations, and socio-economic and demographic dimensions. The nations have allocated a rising share of total economic resources or incomes (i.e., Gross National Product, or GDP) to the healthcare sector and are consequently enjoying substantial increases in population health status and life expectancies. There are complex and interacting linkages among escalating healthcare costs, longer life expectancies, technological progress (or “the march of science”), and sectoral productivities in the health services sectors of the advanced economies. Healthcare policy debates often concentrate on cost-containment strategies and search for improved efficient resource allocation and equitable distribution of the sector’s outputs. Consequently, this contribution is a broad review of the body of literature on technological progress, productivity, and cost: three important dimensions of the evolving modern healthcare systems. It provides a logical integration of three strands of work linking healthcare cost to technology and research evidence on sectoral productivity measurements. Finally, some important aspects of the existing study limitations are noted to motivate new research directions for future investigations to explore in the growing health sector economies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Zvi H. Perry ◽  
Liat Apel-Sarid ◽  
Liat Salzer ◽  
Asaf Toker

<p><em>Medical tourism is defined by the active act of traveling from a patient’s country of origin to a different country, specifically to receive medical treatment. Globalization has made a tremendous change in the field of medical tourism. Medical tourism statistics revealed an anticipated growth of the industry from about $40 billion in 2004 to $100 billion by 2012, as estimated by the McKinsey Company </em><em>(Shetty, 2010)</em><em>. The size of the global medical tourism market increased about 2.5 times from 2004 to 2012 by approximately USD 10 billion, and it is expected to reach approximately USD 33 billion by 2019 </em><em>(Seo &amp; Park, 2018)</em><em>. </em><em>Israel has emerged as a medical tourism destination due to the advantages it can offer. Israel’s facilities are recognized throughout the world, and provide high quality of care at reasonable prices. But, Israel has a socialized health care system. This means that the national health insurance program is financed mainly by the government from public sources, such as health insurance tax that is collected by the general payroll and other general tax revenues, but also directly from the public through out-of-pocket money and private complementary health insurances. In comparison to OECD countries, Israel’s hospitals are characterized by a very low bed to population ratio, an extremely low average length of stay, a high rate of admissions per 1000 population, and a high occupancy rate, which means this is already a very “lean” and effective system, that is on the verge of collapse due to a lack of funding. In relation to this medical tourism raises a lot of ethical, moral and economic issues for the Israeli health system. In the current article we try to shed some light upon these problems and suggest feasible solutions for them.</em></p><p><em>We suggest that countries should adopt an ethical code and health policy, which will be used by local hospitals to maintain the delicate balance between medical services to the local population and medical tourism.</em></p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Jane W. Gitahi ◽  
Amos Gitau Njuguna

The realization of equity goals requires commitment and combination of contributions from all stakeholders in the healthcare sector under the stewardship of the government. The purpose of this study was to examine the mix of contributions in Community Based Health Insurance Schemes (CBHIs) and equity in healthcare in Kenya. The sample was composed of 318 members of management teams drawn from 82 CBHIs. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis, path analysis and multivariate regression analysis in structural modeling equation (SEM) were conducted to determine the mix of contributions in CBHIs and its bearing on equity in healthcare in CBHIs in Kenya. The study concludes that current mix of contributions is not adequate enough to guarantee equity in access of health care for the poor and vulnerable groups. For realization of equity in access of health care governments and sectoral partners should define the place of CBHIs within the national health policy to guide establishment of an optimal combination of contributions in CBHIs for increased access to care and financial risk protection for precluded groups.


2003 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Gupta

Ageing populations with increased life expectancy, low mortality rates, and decreasing and volatile returns in financial markets have made old age financial security difficult. Further, escalating costs of the pension system are forcing the Indian government to re- evaluate its programmes providing social security to its employees. The government has so far received three official reports (namely, OASIS, IRDA, and Bhattacharya) which have examined the issue and suggested several measures to provide a safety net to the ageing population. This paper examines the recommendations made in these reports and analyses the potential effects of them. It is organized around five policy questions: Should the reformed system create individual (funded defined-contribution) accounts or should it remain a single collective fund with a defined-benefit formula? The policy issue is who bears the risk - individual or society collectively. If individual accounts are adopted, should public or private agencies administer the reformed system? The issues that need to be resolved are: the magnitude of intermediation costs, agency problem (principal-agent fiduciary relationship), and the costs to administer the plan. Should fund managers of retirement savings be allowed to invest in a diversified portfolio that includes shares and private bonds? Equity markets are highly volatile and go through long periods of feasts and famine. Guarantees need to be provided in the form of minimum return or providing minimum basic pension on retirement and the bearer of these conjectural liabilities needs to be decided. What should be the level of government fiscal support in the form of tax subsidy, foregone tax collections, grants, administrative costs incurred by its agencies, and level of assumed contingent liabilities in case the government guarantees minimum pension? The crucial question is: how much and to whom is this subsidy accruing? Should the government move toward advance funding of its pension obligations for its employees or should these obligations continue to be financed on pay-as-you-go basis? The present problem in the government pension system is due to successive governments behaving like Santa Clauses ignoring the cost to the exchequer. Mere privatization would not be able to solve these problems. An all-embracing pension reform is not possible overnight. Efforts should be made to find ways of supporting new systems that may supplement existing systems. Suggested measures include: A tax-financed and means-tested system for lower income groups. To build second pillar, continue publicly managed public system for people earning less than Rs 6,500 a month; and for others who can bear the risk, appoint an independent regulator to help develop and supervise private sector in offering risk- return efficient pension products with tax subsidy already available under Section B0CCC. There is no moral justification in India for providing tax benefits to privileged groups to build third pillar. Government should refrain from frequent tinkering of tax laws to benefit a few. This paper also suggests specific fiscal and other measures for implementing a feasible and viable pension system in lndian conditions. For the present, the least that the government can do is to appoint an independent regulator who would also act as developer and make EPFO an independent agency having professional experts on its board.


In the recent era medical tourism has certain significance place in the tourism industry, In India now famous for low cost medical service with high quality medical treatment. The countries where medical tourism is being actively promoted include Greece, South Africa, Jordan, India, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. Recently, Indian healthcare sector shows huge advancements in fields such as technology, infrastructure, and manpower, catapulting India as one of the preferred medical destinations in the world and invariably paving path to an entirely new sector, the medical tourism industry. The medical tourism in India will touch the $8 billion mark by the end of 2020, the influx of the population that experiences a saving of close to 50 to 70 percent on medical tourism industry. Cost effectiveness is a major factor in India, because a patient can undergo any type of treatment at an extremely affordable cost without compromising the quality and other reason is of course the availability of medical visa without any hassle. The Indian government predicts that, India $17-billion-a-year healthcare industry could grow 13 per cent in each of the next six years, boosted by medical tourism, which industry watchers say is growing at 30 per cent annually. This study has been focused by the fully by secondary data, which are collected from the Indian tourism department, and also it analyze the growth percentage in Past years, it will be more helpful to medical service providers. Mainly this study’s objective was examining the foreign exchange earning option through medical tourism and analysis of annual growth of foreign tourist in India. It proves that the annual growth an efficiency of handling capacity of Indian medical the medical industry


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sameen Rafi ◽  
Shyna Saif

India is one of the nations in the world where the population is undergoing anomalous demographic changes. The increase in longevity and decrease fertility lead to the boom of older people aged 60 and above both in relative and absolute terms. Due to the rise in number, it creates pressure not only on the family but the responsibility shifts to the government also. This issue becomes a significant social problem not only in India but across the globe. The government had taken action by creating policies and programs to provide services to them. Still, the majority of the elderly population is lacking behind in these areas like health facilities, infrastructure, living arrangements suffering from isolation, loneliness, abuse, crime. Nowadays, smart city initiatives are taken by the government across the country but still in process. To involve and facilitate more cities for "age-friendly," the World Health Organization develop the Global Age-Friendly Cities Guide and a manual "Checklist of Essential Features of Age-Friendly Cities." Cooperating with 35 urban communities from developed and developing nations, the WHO oversees eight highlights for age-accommodating urban areas in the space of urban life. This paper had an objective to study and understand exiting literature on age-friendly communities in developed and developing countries and draw attention to the need to create age-friendly cities in India. The realization of the needs and demands of older people, the Indian government should give attention to promote and implement more age-friendly communities all over the country. This initiative till now taken in 3 states, i.e., Delhi, Udaipur, and Kolkata-which involved in age-friendly community initiatives collaborated with WHO.  In this era of a rapid aging sphere, the communities have to enhance in such a manner where the older population can meet their needs quickly without any conflicts and problem. To conclude, the government and policymaker should emphasize the policies into practices to build age-friendly communities across the country and make better living conditions for "all-ages." For timely action and productive recommendation, it is an urgent need on the part of the government, policymakers, researchers, social workers to develop and enhance the community's facilities, which can gain confidence and wellbeing of the elderly in India


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