Even though native to India, I have never had an opportunity to work in India before this assignment. Being completely aware of the political, economic and cultural environment, I was therefore very nervous and excited at the same time. India is a country of both tremendous health needs and growing health resources. In view of the rapidly growing start-up ecosystem, the opportunity to develop health solutions in India, for India has never been greater. Many of these solutions have applications for low-resource countries far beyond its borders. Despite the hyper growth inflection phase for Indian start-up ecosystem, the healthcare start-up space is still in infancy. Fewer than 100 startups listed in India who are addressing healthcare needs. Despite vast technological prowess, India fares poorly in terms of burden of disease and preventable morbidities and mortalities, and of social protection of the poof from the rising healthcare costs.
But it’s not all grim! Healthcare innovation space in India has lately shown encouraging signs, for instance 57 deals were made in 2015 with total funding of $277 million. Fueling homegrown innovation to address the health needs and gaps in a country is important as homegrown innovation provides stronger link to local needs, can significantly improve global access to technologies, enhance local to global collaborations, increasing access to technology innovations.
My task therefore was to identify strategic opportunities and partnerships in India to help PATH establish its value-add in the innovation ecosystem to improve the affordability, accessibility, and effectiveness of health technologies for the bottom-of-the-pyramid populations. As a part of the project, I got a chance to interview various entrepreneurs, advocacy partners, incubators and accelerators, and medical experts, gaining invaluable exposure to the health innovation space in India.
At the end of my engagement, receiving extremely positive response on my work was highly encouraging, and I can definitely see it translating into an actionable and impactful work for PATH.
On a personal level, it gave me a chance to connect with my family and friends whom I had not seen in a long time. I also took this opportunity to travel to nearby cities during the weekends - Agra and Jaipur.
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| The Taj Mahal (shot with Nikon D5100) |
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| Being tourist in my country... atop Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur |
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| The pink city of Jaipur! |
Off to Africa now…
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