While Union Budget 2023 acknowledges the role of start ups in various spheres, including the healthcare sector, start ups hoped for a lot more. The proposal for the establishment of three centres of excellence for artificial intelligence to enable ‘Make AI for India’ and ‘Make AI work for India’ will no doubt spur more start ups to work on deploying AI in health
Gautam Chopra, Founder, and CEO, BeatO
Even though the Budget this year focuses on strengthening the healthcare infrastructure, it is prudent to point out that the growing demands on our healthcare system cannot be met only by increasing the physical infrastructure. The setting up of 157 new nursing colleges is a huge step towards meeting the ever growing demand for providing care through paramedical staff.
However, for care to reach those who really need it, it is imperative that they can leverage simple and affordable digital technology, which will help them reach the masses and serve them more efficiently. Integrating this initiative with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission will be key to delivering services to the last mile.
The dedicated multidisciplinary courses for medical devices, fueled by skilled and technically equipped manpower, will make India the hub for creating new-age affordable medical devices like wearables and drive the trust in digital health.
More support and allocation of resources for health-tech start-ups to become effective would have been appreciated, as well as integration of digital solutions by such startups within the public health system would help them take their products and services further and reduce the burden on the system. In last year’s Budget, the government proposed providing up to Rs 2,000 crore as venture capital to create an ecosystem for health-tech start-ups to help them access capital and develop innovative products and services but we haven’t seen concrete steps followed in the deployment.
Chris George, CEO & Co-founder QubeHealth
The healthcare sector in India is largely fragmented, be it the healthcare providers or the healthcare seekers. The government has undertaken several amendments to increase government healthcare expenditure (GHE). However, the out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) incurred by Indians continues to remain high.
On a positive note, the government has indeed continued to increase GH from 28.6 per cent in FY14 to 40.6 per cent in FY2019. Furthermore, the OOPE as a share of total health expenditure too has come down to 48.2 per cent in FY19, from 64.2 per cent in FY14.
While though the government expenditure on healthcare has been rising, it has not yet been able to bring down the OOPE to a significant degree.
Sohit Kapoor, Founder, Driefcase
The National Data Governance Policy can truly be a game-changer. It has the potential to unlock tremendous value from data, especially healthcare data. The Policy, along with the recently announced Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), will encourage legitimate use of data, thereby enhancing the overall privacy framework in the country.
Sujata Pawar, Co-Founder & CEO, Avni
We applaud the initiatives declared in the Union Budget 2023-24 by Honorable Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The budget strikes an appropriate balance between confronting the key foundations of health and well-being, inclusive development, human capital innovation, and R&D, as well as laying the groundwork for a prosperous economy by investing heavily in infrastructure. The government’s intention to empower women entrepreneurs through self-help clusters focused on raw material supply, product branding, and marketing is also a very unique and sensible step given that community impact plays a major role with women in India. Furthermore, the announcement of 157 new nursing colleges will further aid strengthen India’s primary healthcare system.
Dr Preet Pal Thakur, Co-founder, Glamyo Health
In this budget, healthcare and well-being have been given top priority. After delivering 220 crore COVID-19 vaccines to 102 crore people, it is heartening to see the Government of India (GOI) proposal to work on the mission to eliminate sickle-cell anaemia, a potentially fatal disease in India’s tribal population, where approximately one in every 86 births among STs has SCD. Furthermore, the establishment of 157 new nursing colleges alongside with the 157 medical colleges established since 2014 will strengthen India’s capacity to overcome the backlog of elective surgeries that has been piling up since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Archit Garg, Co-founder, Glamyo Health
Widening the infrastructure pan India is the primary need when it comes to strengthening the healthcare structure. And to do so we need skilled talent and thicker allocation. Last year, Hon’ble FM had announced AI intervention in health, and NDHM, which had fueled the infrastructure aspect, while this year the budget has included the wish for more talent by announcing 157 new nursing colleges in co-location with 157 medical colleges. Simultaneously, the new entrepreneurs that came forward to contribute to the healthcare ecosystem can now enjoy the ease of compliance too. It is a holistic approach for healthcare spread over two year if one sees it together.
Rajat Goel, Co-founder and CEO, Eye-Q
A lot of start-ups have been stepping into the healthcare sector to address different challenges attentively. However, catering to the world’s second-largest population demands skilled professionals. And we can never have enough when it comes to talent in the medical field. Therefore, we are glad that the government is focusing on better education by announcing 157 new nursing colleges. Additionally, pharma goes hand in hand with healthcare and requires continues research and financing, and the new programme to promote research and innovation in pharma will be taken up through Centres of Excellence can certainly serve the purpose.
Krishna Veer Singh, Co-Founder and CEO, Lissun
It was evident during the lockdown that mental health has remained an ignored area and demands immediate attention. In the last budget, Hon’ble FM announced the launch of a tele mental health service. This year, the budget has encompassed the needs of healthcare professionals by announcing 157 new nursing colleges. All this together will serve the purpose of adding fuel to the healthcare infrastructure, and it is the only way it will make complete sense. Also, there has been a significant increase in the budget allocation towards the Healthcare Ministry which indicates the government’s attention toward health standards in the country.
Dr Moni Abraham Kuriakose – Medical Director, Karkinos Healthcare & CEO, Karkinos Healthcare, Kerala
The budget for the current fiscal year is a testament to the government’s forward-thinking approach, encompassing a range of sectors and providing clear steps for implementation. We welcome the government’s commitment to supporting the healthcare sector with a clear focus on creating a collaborative infrastructure for medical research & development. The announcement on ICMR labs to be made accessible to both public and private medical college faculty, as well as private sector R&D teams, is a strong statement in that direction.
The budget announcement on creating a talent pool to ensure the availability of skilled manpower for futuristic medical technologies, coupled with the announcement on setting up of 100 labs for developing 5G enabled applications for various sectors including healthcare will energise the technology-led healthcare platforms providing last-mile healthcare services in critical diseases like cancer. Furthermore, the government’s acknowledgment of the vitality brought in by the start-up ecosystem, especially in the R&D and innovation space is a great boost for the healthcare start-up segment.
Pankaj Balwani, Founder, of Xplore Lifestyle
As far as keeping macroeconomic stability is concerned, the budget has definitely ticked all the boxes. The setting up of multidisciplinary courses for medical devices in existing institutions as well as the provision for new-age courses under PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana such as coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, etc would definitely have a multiplier effect while also giving an impetus to the skilling and upskilling of MedTech professionals in the country. Relatedly, the promotion of pharma research through sharing of research at ICMR labs and centers of excellence will also help in this endeavour.
However, even as we wait for the fine print, as a MedTech solutions provider, we would have expected the government to announce reductions on customs duties and GST on medical devices. Also, the government could have expanded the scope and budget for PLI programs for medical devices in today’s budget.
Pankaj Balwani, Founder, Xplore Lifestyle
As far as keeping macroeconomic stability is concerned, the budget has definitely ticked all the boxes. The setting up of multidisciplinary courses for medical devices in existing institutions as well as the provision for new-age courses under PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana such as coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, etc would definitely have a multiplier effect while also giving an impetus to the skilling and upskilling of MedTech professionals in the country. Relatedly, the promotion of pharma research through sharing of research at ICMR labs and centers of excellence will also help in this endeavour.
However, even as we wait for the fine print, as a MedTech solutions provider, we would have expected the government to announce reductions on customs duties and GST on medical devices. Also, the government could have expanded the scope and budget for PLI programs for medical devices in this year’s budget.
Dr Kanury Rao Co-founder and CSO, PredOmix
We applaud the announcement of the establishment of centres of excellence for AI in prestigious institutions, which will aid in the creation of ground-breaking applications and scalable solutions to challenges in the field of health. The introduction of a new course will aid medical students in learning about medical devices and provide them with new career opportunities. Furthermore, we anticipate additional investment in the healthcare sector as a result of the expansion of ICMR labs in India.
Dr Maluk Mohamed, Founder and VP of Global Research, Twin Health
A well-foresighted budget balancing between what is needed for now and what is essential for the future accommodating the pharmaceutical industry and technology-driven precision treatment. Considering the population of India and all economic conditions of the overall population, the government of India has methodically allocated a decent budget to health care and family welfare with a 10 per cent hike compared with last year’s budget with a focus on preventive healthcare, especially on healthcare technology and medical devices. This is a clear indication on the country getting ready in working towards personalised healthcare solutions through digital technology focusing on chronic metabolic diseases by allocating funds for AI medical research and medical devices.
Sanjay Vinayak, Founder and CEO, Connect and Heal
The Union budget 2023 provides much-needed thrust for the healthcare sector. Multi-disciplinary courses in high-end medical technology will help improve healthcare in more than one way – improving quality and access to care. We believe it will help expand the scope and adoption of preventive healthcare.
The setting up of centers of excellence towards ‘Make AI for India’ and ‘Make AI work for India’ is a commendable move that will help the healthcare ecosystem in a big way.
Dr Jogin Desai, CEO & Co-Founder, Eyestem
The mission mode program to eradicate sickle cell anemia can be tremendously impactful. Such programmes are a marathon and not a sprint yet can create a fantastic template for programmes for other diseases like curable blindness in subsequent years.