Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday delivered the Budget 2022-23 with her shortest budget so far with a major focus on the healthcare sector. “We are in the midst of the Omicron wave, the speed of our vaccination campaign has helped greatly. I am confident that with ‘Sabka Prayaas’, we will continue with strong growth,” Nirmala Sitharaman said while opening the budget for 2022-23 for the healthcare sector. Here are some of the Reaction Quote from the budget session of this financial year.
Mr. Vikram Thaploo, CEO Apollo Telehealth(largest and oldest multi-specialty telemedicine network in the world. A unit of Apollo Hospitals Group,)
The government in its last Union budget had placed health and well-being as the first of its six pillars, and with India into its third year into the Covid-19 pandemic, that focus has reflected in this year’s Union Budget as well. The launch of the National Tele Mental Health Program which will include a network of 23 tele mental health centres of excellence with Nimhans being the nodal centre and IIIT Bangalore providing technology support is a welcome move by the government to augment the use of telemedicine services as well as provide support to people with mental health disorders. Also, an open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem will be rolled out and it’ll further help in strengthening the healthcare services within the country. It will consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity and universal access to health facilities. The increased investment towards Health Infrastructure and focus on a holistic approach to health is seen as a testimony of the commitment to building stronger health systems in the country.”
Mr. Nikkhil K Masurkar, Executive Director, ENTOD Pharmaceuticals(specializes in Ophthalmology, Dermatology and ENT)
A well structured and a forward looking budget encompassing all sectors and detailed steps for implementation. Healthcare and well-being has received top priority in this budget. The roll out of the the National Digital Health Ecosystem that will consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity and universal access to health facilities along with the national tele-mental health program shows the government’s committment towards improving and enhancing healthcare in India. As the future of manufacturing is driven with robotics and other automation technologies, we also appreciate the announcement of PLI schemes to create manufacturing global champions under AtmaNirbhar Bharat. I am hopeful and happy about the changes on the healthcare, which is an important area for India. The key is in its implementation.”
Mr. Ashok Patel, CEO and Founder Max Ventilator (India’s leading ventilator manufacturer)
While the government’s announcement in the budget 2022 to accelerate the country’s general infrastructure building including connectivity and logistics through Gatishakti would certainly catalyze the broader domestic manufacturing, it must also have positive spillover effects on the medical device segment. The continued policy support to MSMEs by way of extension of ECLGS scheme would also be beneficial to a large number of medical device makers who fall under the MSME category. At the same time, the budget highlighting the PLI scheme in general should also hold value for the medical device sector. The creation of a national digital health ecosystem with focus on mental health would also lead to enhanced business activities.”
Ms. Sugandh Ahluwalia, Chief of Strategy, Indian Spinal Injuries Centres.
“It’s highly disappointing that the government didn’t mention anything about the spending on healthcare expenditure in the presentation of Union Budget 2022. However, the digital infra push right from health, banking to education has been the major highlight. The announcement of rolling out National Digital Health Ecosystem will give a major push to our nationwide digital registries of health providers and health facilities amidst the pandemic. Even the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman acknowledged the unprecedented crisis and began her budget speech by expressing empathy to those who suffered during the pandemic. The implementation of a national tele-mental health program, which will have tech-support from IIT Bangalore, will give an impetus to mental health issues as the pandemic has accentuated problems of stress and depression in the people. Though it shows the government is responsive to the needs of the nation, the government must also focus on health infrastructure”.
Dr Aashish Chaudhry Managing Director, Aakash Healthcare and Aakash Group of Companies, Dwarka
The Union Budget has built the groundwork and provided a blueprint for the economy over the next 25 years. We are happy with the decision to create an open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem. This will include digital registers of health professionals and facilities, a unique health identity, and universal access to health care facilities. The pandemic has brought the subject of mental health to the forefront. For this, the government has announced a national telemental health programme. This would include a network of 23 excellence telemental health centres, with Nimhans serving as the nodal centre and IIIT Bangalore providing technical support. This would undoubtedly improve access to high-quality mental health counselling and treatment services.
Dr. Gauri Agarwal, Founder & Director, Genestrings Diagnostic and Seeds of Innocence
“We are happy with the decision to make the National Digital Health Ecosystem an open platform that will provide universal access to health care facilities through digital health professionals. The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, which aims to improve logistic connections across the country, will assist the health sector immensely since we will be able to get the best treatments across the country. The Plan can be used to provide remote and rural communities with the best healthcare services, including fertility consultations. With the announcement that mobile phones will become cheaper, it will significantly improve the telemedicine sector’s ability to advance even to the most remote corners of the country. Redesigning existing women and child development programmes such as Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya, Saksham Anganwadi, and Poshan 2.0 would also significantly improve women’s health and lifestyle. We also applaud Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s plan to establish a nationwide tele-mental health programme. This would include a network of 23 excellent tele-mental health centres, with Nimhans serving as the nodal centre and IIT Bangalore providing technical support. The government also announced a Rs 64,180 crore boost for the healthcare sector last year. This, combined with today’s announcement, would aid India’s entire healthcare sector in overcoming ongoing issues such as COVID-19.”
Siddharth Shah, Director, Bharat Rubber Works Pvt. Ltd.
India has been in the category of developing world whereby it had to wait for years before it could begin vaccinating against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. Many, especially those our age, are perhaps unaware that there was a time when India used to rely extensively on foreign aid to ensure adequate food supply for its large population.
It was beyond imagination that India would manage to vaccinate a significant proportion of its population within two years of a pandemic outbreak – a historic first that points to the transformation it has witnessed over the years.
There were expectations for more PLI-based schemes but an increase in cargo and a boost in supply chain infrastructure were much needed which were heavily fractured during the pandemic. Also, it will boost in enhancing productivity. They will be key to sustaining this momentum thus accelerating sectoral growth and consolidating India’s position within the global pharma value chain.
It’s the right time to invest and increase production capacity for quantity and quality production.
Bharat Rubber Works Pvt. Ltd. – A pioneer in healthcare packaging
Mr. Harish Iyer, Head of Finance, Carestream India
Key expectation from budget were ways and means to accelerate healthcare sectoral . This included Increased public spend in health care to 2.5-3% of GDP as envisaged in the National Health Policy 2017, Reduction of GST rate on medical equipment and devices and abolition of levy of cess on imported medical equipments. On this front, the Union budget does not give any clear directions and has no blockbuster announcements. However, welcome measures such as roll out of National Digital Health Ecosystem with digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity and universal access to health facilities & Exemption on certain medical devices and drugs and medicines for which sufficient domestic capacity exists ( fine print awaited to understand this better ) are beneficial measures and would have far reaching consequences for Healthcare Sector in India.
Dr. Wasim Ghori ,Brand Ambassador – DiaBeaters, India
In today’s budget, the government has announced rolling out an open platform for the National Health Digital Ecosystem with a focus on Mental Health.
These are steps in the right direction showing the government’s commitment to creating a holistic health environment thus, nurturing good health for all. The pandemic has had a visibly damaging impact on the mental well-being of people. The situation got compounded as there was another epidemic we were facing simultaneously – the mental health epidemic which was global in nature.
The proposed national Tele-Mental Health Programme will create a supportive environment for people to talk about emotional issues they counter on a day-to-day basis and help remove the stigma that we have around mental and emotional problems.
On the other hand, we were hoping that the current state of healthcare facilities in the country would have attracted the attention of the government especially when we were struggling with the massive pandemic second wave last year.
Furthermore, we were hoping that the Hon’ble Finance Minister would also address Non-communicable disease burden, care and management among the population of the country with a focus on genome mapping in reducing the risk of lifestyle diseases. Public-Private Partnerships for Genome Mapping projects promoted by the government would have made Indians more aware about their physical makeup, thus helping them in making informed lifestyle choices eventually resulting in the reduction of future medical bills and physical distress.
These would have been important steps for guiding policies and priorities. Unfortunately, we haven’t had any exciting news from the Budget 2022 which we were looking forward to.
