The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, addressed a Post Budget Webinar on the subject of ‘Health and Medical Research’.
He pointed out, as the pandemic focused the global attention on health, India went a step further and focused on wellness.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined that in previous years’ budgets, the government has constantly tried to reduce India’s dependence on foreign nations and emphasized the role of all stakeholders in this.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined that Critical health infrastructure is being made accessible to small towns and villages under the PM-Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission which is not only giving rise to new hospitals but it is also creating a new and complete health ecosystem. As a result, the Prime Minister noted that many opportunities are being created for health entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals.
Regarding human resources in the sector, the Prime Minister informed that more than 260 new medical colleges have been opened in the last few years. This has doubled the medical seats in graduate and postgraduate medical courses as compared to 2014.
“Opening 157 nursing colleges in the vicinity of the medical colleges is a huge step in the direction of medical human resources. This may be useful in fulfilling global demand, not just the domestic need”, he added.
The Prime Minister highlighted the role of technology in constantly making medical services accessible and affordable and elaborated on the government’s focus on the implementation of technology in the sector.
“We want to give timely healthcare to the citizens through the facility of Digital Health ID. 10 crore people have already benefited by teleconsultation through schemes like e-Sanjivini”, he said.
5 G is creating new opportunities in this sector for startups. Drones are bringing revolutionary changes in medicine delivery and testing services. “This is a great opportunity for the entrepreneurs and will give a push to our efforts for universal healthcare”, he said, exhorting the entrepreneurs to avoid the import of any technology.
The Prime Minister listed the required institutional response in this regard. He informed about the new schemes in the medical device sector. He mentioned Bulk drug parks, medical device parks, more than 30 thousand crores on PLI schemes and said that the last few years have witnessed 12-14 per cent growth in medical devices.
He informed that this market is reaching rupees 4 lakh crore in coming years. The Prime Minister also said that India has started work on skilled manpower for future medical technology and high-end manufacturing and research.
He said, in institutions like IIT, courses like biomedical engineering will be run. He asked the participants to find ways of industry-academia and government collaboration.
Highlighting the growing confidence of the world in the pharma sector of India, the Prime Minister emphasized the need to capitalize on this and work towards protecting this image.
He informed that a new programme is being launched to boost research and innovation in the pharma sector through centres of excellence which will strengthen the economy as well as create new employment opportunities.
“The market size of the pharma sector in India is 4 lakh crores today”, the Prime Minister said. He stressed the need to find coordination between the private sector and academia as it has the potential to grow the market size beyond 10 lakh crores.
The Prime Minister suggested the pharma sectors identify important areas for investment. Highlighting the several steps taken by the government to further research in this sector, the Prime Minister informed that many new labs by ICMR have been opened up for the research industry.
Shri Modi underlined the efforts taken by the government from modern medical infrastructure to medical human resources and said that the new capabilities are not limited to health facilities only for its citizens but also aim to make India the world’s most attractive medical tourism destination. He pointed out that medical tourism is a very large sector in India and also becoming a huge medium for generating employment in the country.
