Fresh impetus to strengthen healthcare missing

"India and the World are still amid a pandemic that wreaked havoc in the lives of people and to the economies across the world. While the existing healthcare machinery in India stood up to the challenge and did its best to keep a possible disaster under check, this sector needed a fresh impetus to enhance and strengthen the healthcare net across India. The Finance Minister in her Union Budget speech announced a levy of "Health and Education cess" for the year 2022-23, but did not specify where this additional money would be utilized. I strongly feel the government must directly invest or encourage more private investments in the healthcare sector to ensure semi-urban and rural locations receive quality healthcare facilities. The Government must also encourage digital health avenues to spread operations across the length and breadth of the country."

Dr D V S Soma Raju, Executive Director of Hyderabad-based SLG Hospital

10% allocation rise not in line with health policy

"A ten percent increase in allocation to health is not in line with the health policy aspiration of public spending of 2.5% of GDP. Increased allocation to other social sectors that have a bearing on the health status of people is a saving grace."

Dr Krishna Reddy Nallamalla, South Asia Regional Director, ACCESS Health International

Forward-looking budget

"This is a forward-looking budget that focuses on not only the economic health of the country but also takes into account physical and mental health. This is indeed a major milestone in India. The National Tele Mental Health programme initiative is a revolutionary one as mental health has not received much attention from citizens and health providers alike owing to the grave threat to physical health. It is a conscious investment into the human capital of the country and an effort in the direction of improving the quality of life of the citizens. "

Dr Krishna Prasad, Managing Director of Ankura Hospitals for women and children

Tax benefits must encourage more start-ups

"During the pandemic, we saw an immense contribution of start-ups to innovation in healthcare and the extension of the tax benefits for another year should encourage more start-ups in the health tech space to come up and invest in R&D especially in the field of AI-powered smart wearables and predictive healthcare. This will in turn be invaluable in strengthening our fight against non-communicable diseases, which can otherwise derail the economic recovery by impacting our productive demographic. The budget keeps us on track on enabling universal health accessibility with the proposed National Digital Health Ecosystem. Digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identifiers for each individual, will help in providing universal access to health facilities. Along with the national tele-mental health program, this shows the enhanced focus on health."

Dr Prathap C Reddy, Chairman of Apollo Hospitals Group