HEALTH SECTOR TRANSFORMATION IN INDIA ON THE EVE OF GLOBALISATION - OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

The article discusses the structural changes that are taking place in Indian health care sector in the emergence of globalisation process in general and changing scenario of health care financing in particular. Provision of affordable and quality health care services to billion-plus population is a greatest challenge and itself is a significant opportunity to the medical community and other service providers. However, India, despite being a signatory to the Alma Ata Declaration of 1978, which aimed at achieving “Health for All” by 2000, is still lagging behind from realising this target, even in 2019. Issues related to accessibility, affordability, availability, efficiency and quality of health care service delivery continue to pose threat to the policy makers. Multinational players at present are trying to enlarge their presence through partnerships and investments. Since January 2000, FDI is permitted up to 100 percent under the automatic route in hospitals in India. Therefore, there is growing interest among foreign investors to enter India’s healthcare sector through capital investments, technology tie ups and collaborations across various fields, including diagnostics, medical equipment, hospitals and education and training. In this regard the paper tries to analyse the sectoral changes taken place in Health Care sector in general and Health Care financing in particular and to identify some of the challenges and opportunities in this sector. The study is descriptive in nature and based on the secondary data that are gathered from the books, various articles from journals, reports various Departments and other valid online sources.