The Opportunity Is Huge, but There Is No Incentive ; a Business Today-Technopak Roundtable On 'Opportunities and Investments in the Healthcare Industry' Throws Up Some Ground- Breaking Solutions On How to Help the Sector Thrive.

Summary

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Healthcare has been touted as the 'Next Big Thing' for some time now. However, it somehow hasn't yet become that, thanks largely to a combination of archaic laws, inadequate regulation, opaque balance sheets and the reluctance of the government to give healthcare industry and infrastructure status.

This in turn has meant poor returns for investors, and their disinclination to bring in the big bucks that are desperately needed to develop private healthcare. Last fortnight's 1st India Healthcare Conclave held in Mumbai touched upon these issues. At a BT Technopak roundtable, investors, promoters and CEOs from some of the best global hospitals discussed what made India attractive and ready for big investments, and also the barriers that have been keeping the billions away. The panel comprised Dr Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals; Shivinder M. Singh, CEO & MD, Fortis Healthcare; Steve J. Thompson, Vice Chairman, Johns Hopkins Medicine International; Curtis J. Schroeder, Group CEO, Bumrungrad International; Michael Neeb, President & Chief Executive, International Operations, HCA International; Dr Jack Shevel, President, Global Healthcare and Investments Solutions; and Arvind K. Singhal, Chairman, Technopak. BT's Executive Editor Brian Carvalho moderated the discussion.

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The Opportunity Is Huge, but There Is No Incentive ; a Business Today-Technopak Roundtable On 'Opportunities and Investments in the Healthcare Industry' Throws Up Some Ground- Breaking Solutions On How to Help the Sector Thrive.

BT: Infrastructure-creation is pretty much the flavour of the season today in India. However, when it comes to building hospitals, which one would assume is also infrastructure, there's not much to be heard on that front.Reddy: I am glad you mentioned that healthcare is an infrastructure sector. But the truth is nobody has classified us as any sector. We've been told that hospitals cannot be classified as an industry. We've asked for infrastructure status at one point, and at another point we said at least call it a priority sector. Unfortunately we got neither. But if one has to build a h...

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