India’s per capita expenditure on health care and research is less than $1, out of this only 3% is used for public health research.
Dr Soumya Swaminathan, the director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) stated that the share for the country’s health care expenditure is just 1% of the total $1 billion amount that India is spending annually, which correlates to 0.06% of the total GDP. Out of which the share of pharmaceutical industries is 83% and only 16% by not-for-profit institutions.
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and the Jawaharlal Centre for Advanced Scientific Research point out the need for more investment in the health sector. They suggested that if the country really wants to strengthen their medical grounds and want to focus on solving issues related to health, without depending on other nations, more investment is a must.