By Budget 2022 reveals immense growth factor in Indian health tech through generation allocation
Indian health tech has been on a staggering growth since its inception, but the last two years of the pandemic have turned this upside-down and boosted the Indian healthtech significantly. The budget 2022, declared by the union finance minister Nirmala Sitharam on 1st February 2022, had an optimistic vision to unfold for the healthcare industry. Budget 2021 allocated an expenditure on health tech that was worth rupees 65 crores approximately.
In the wake of the pandemic and the ongoing wave caused by Omicron is strictly considered by budget 2022 to build future healthcare development. Praising Indian health tech, Sitharaman also introduced policies that improve the loopholes. The lack of healthcare infrastructure that is coming on the way of healthcare development in India is resolved to be upgraded and bolstered with future-ready systems, said FM. Therefore, the FY23 budget strengthens the Atmanirbhar Bharat ambition by paving the way for a vigorous digital health provision in India.
NDHE
The Ayushman Bharat digital mission adopted by the Indian government seeks to bring Indian healthtech under one umbrella with other industries’ digital aspects. NDHE stands for National Digital Healthcare Ecosystem, which is an open digital platform for all the stakeholders of the healthcare industry to get access to healthcare services together under one affiliation. This will facilitate the patients to reach the doctors easily as well as the doctors to reach the patients with ease. NDHE collaborates with the Bharatnet project to extend the Indian health tech to the villages and remote areas by enabling its access and affordability to the villagers and underprivileged.
Tele Mental Health Programme
The pandemic has seen an enormous increase in awareness about mental health and well-being. A number of instances that have occurred throughout the last two years have led the government to give it a second thought to the rising concerns of the citizens. Therefore, the budget 2022 is also further dedicated to the National Tele Mental Health Programme, which over the digital medium is meant to assist people suffering from psychological disorders or disturbances. The platform is connected to 23 renowned mental health organizations that can effectively take up a case and provide adequate therapy while ensuring the privacy of the information revealed and discussed.
For Healthtech Startups
Indian healthtech seems to have been striving to co-exist with the international intervention into the system. However, budget 2022 to a great extent has solved this issue for the Indian healthtech entrepreneurs. Although the overall focus of budget 2022 was on all the Indian startups the healthtech are the most benefited as they are an emerging sector, which is often under-trusted. Therefore, extending the tax incentives by one year and constructing favorable regulatory policies under “Make In India” has changed the game. These policies include:
- Budget 2022 abrogated 350+ costumes duty relaxations, which encompassed medical goods and devices as well as pharmaceutical products.
- Import duties are decreased by a significant rate that would enable the startups to produce the final product at an affordable price to the Indian population, making the Indians rely on them majorly with time.
- Empowering domestic manufacturers with a flexible environment to grow.
Anganwadi Welfare
The government had proposed an ambitious project to uplift the Anganwadi scheme by improvising it to Saksham Anganwadi, in which healthcare literacy will be provided through various communication channels. This trickles down to the extremely remote locations of the country in order to enhance healthcare outcomes and strengthen the efforts of the local healthcare services extended.
