Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan said India has tremendous potential to emerge as the global powerhouse of healthcare sector. With sustained efforts, augmenting infrastructure and technology, and offering world-class quality services, the country can also feature in the list of ‘five favoured destinations for medical tourism in the world’, she said.
Ms. Soundararajan’s assertions were also the way forward, delivered virtually in the 65th foundation lecture of the Administrative Staff College of India, on the theme ‘How India can become a healthcare powerhouse for the world’.
According to her, a ‘4-I mantra’ — Innovation, Integration, Increased funding and Internationalisation of standards — can put India on the desired map. She opined that there was scope for improvement, on par with world leaders, in pharma, medical tourism, vaccine development, and training of medical and para-medical specialists.
And, self-reliance in the active pharmaceutical ingredients market as crucial for growth and sustainability of the pharmaceutical sector, pragmatic blueprints with time-bound targets for initiatives, and world class standards across the indicators are strictly non-negotiable, she added.
Calling for greater integration of technology, by enabling a startup ecosystem in the healthcare sector, she said the future could be explored through artificial intelligence, robotics, digital health technologies and analytics.
With increased funding, Ms. Soundararajan envisaged patient-centered smart healthcare, a network of medical colleges with double the seats at all levels and international exchange programmes, all of which could comprehensively contribute to making India a global healthcare leader.
ASCI Director General Nirmalya Bagchi and chairman K. Padmanabhaiah took part in the event.
