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.
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.
Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)
