Healthcare is a very complicated business and you need a very different business model to be successful in India; yet at a global level, there are a lot of challenges and opportunities.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
There is a lot of opportunity sitting in global healthcare business. I think there is a strong opportunity to build upon for further growth.
India made a big mistake by signing up to TRIPS. With a population of 1.3 billion, India can't afford a monopoly in healthcare. Monopolies lead to higher prices and we can't allow them in a country like India with so much poverty and misery. It was like signing our own death warrant.
I am very concerned about the fact that India as a country does not have a national health system, and I am determined to try and influence the government to really build a national health system for the country.
Patients are becoming aware that they're being taken for a ride by big pharma companies. They charge high prices and have never cared for India's healthcare. There are 23 million cases of cancer every year and India has a fair share of that.
To be sure, India has achieved enviable success in business services, like the glistening call centers in Bangalore and elsewhere. But in the global jousting for manufacturing jobs, India does not get its share.
There's not enough competition and innovation in healthcare.
Bangalore has become a centre for healthcare.
What is lacking in India are decent social services. The health service is a disaster. Education is a disaster.
We don't have a business model for health care in this country, We just have a business model for care. The way doctors and hospitals get paid is something bad has got to happen. It's a pure reactive model.
Having come from the U.S. and observed the way the health care system works there, we definitely felt that we could do something in India.