India's $372 billion healthcare industry ripe for foreign investment

From Krishnan Nayar NEW DELHI, 30th March, 2021 (WAM) – India’s healthcare industry, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 22 per cent will be valued at $ 372 billion by next year, NITI Aayog, the main policy think tank of the government of India predicted today.

It offers a wide range of foreign and domestic investment opportunities in various segments such as hospitals, medical devices and equipment, health insurance, telemedicine, home healthcare and medical value travel, NITI Aayog said in a report released by the think tank’s supremo in charge of health, Dr V K Paul and its CEO Amitabh Kant.

In the hospital segment, where several UAE healthcare companies already own and run hospitals in Indian cities, "the expansion of private players to tier-2 and tier-3 locations, beyond metropolitan cities, offers an attractive investment opportunity."

In the medical devices and equipment segment, expansion of diagnostic and pathology centres as well as miniaturised diagnostics have high potential for growth, the report said. "The COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges but has also increased opportunities. All these factors, together make India’s healthcare industry ripe for investment," said the NITI Aayog CEO.

"Medical value travel, especially wellness tourism, has bright prospects, given India’s inherent strengths in alternative systems of medicine." Gulf and Arab countries are major sources of medical tourism into India.

"With respect to pharmaceuticals, India can boost domestic manufacturing, supported by recent government schemes with performance-linked incentives." This is being borne out by India’s ongoing mass production of vaccines for global supply against COVID-19.