Sunil Kakar, Group Chief Financial Officer, IDFC, said

New Delhi March 6, 2014:- India’s rising healthcare needs require quality infrastructure — about 6.5 lakh additional beds — which entail an investment of ₹1.65 lakh crore by 2017, a white paper on public-private-partnership in healthcare said.

The paper ‘Public-Private People Partnership: Winning in Collaboration,’ which calls for more and better collaboration between private and public entities in healthcare, was presented to President Pranab Mukherjee by the Healthcare Alliance on Tuesday.

The Alliance is a group of 10 organisations working towards healthcare, including the Public Health Foundation of India , Bain and Company, Health Federation of India and the Apollo Hospitals group. The Alliance called for implementation of the National PPP Policy Framework for Healthcare as a strong regulatory framework for private participation.

It also called on private organisations to implement business models developed on economies of scales models so that they can generate profits even with lower margins. The paper said private players also need to work with NGOs and focus on low-cost inclusive business models.

The paper points out that out of the total 758 PPP projects across sectors, worth a total ₹3.83 lakh crore, only eight fall under healthcare (worth ₹1,833 crore).