Shaping India’s healthcare ecosystem

The Union Budget 2025 presents a defining moment for India’s healthcare sector—an opportunity to build a system that is not only responsive to immediate needs but also resilient against evolving global health challenges.

By prioritising structural reforms, medical education, pharmaceutical innovation, and digital transformation, the budget aims to make healthcare a cornerstone of economic progress, social equity, and human capital development.

A key highlight is the unprecedented expansion of medical education, with an ambitious plan to add 75,000 MBBS seats over the next five years, including 10,000 in the coming fiscal year.

India’s medical education infrastructure has seen extraordinary growth: the number of medical colleges has increased by 81 per cent, from 387 in 2013-14 to 702 in 2024-25, while MBBS seats have surged by 125 per cent to 115,812.

Postgraduate medical seats have also risen by 127 per cent over the past decade, strengthening the pipeline of specialists. However, beyond expanding capacity, the focus must shift to enhancing the quality of medical training.

Integrating artificial intelligence, genomics, and digital health into curricula will be essential to preparing India’s future healthcare professionals for a rapidly evolving global landscape.

Beyond workforce development, the budget reinforces India’s leadership in global pharmaceutical manufacturing. Pharmaceutical exports have grown at a 6 per cent CAGR between 2016 and 2024, outpacing overall merchandise exports. The government’s allocation of Rs 2,445 crore under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme signals a strong push toward self-reliance.

Yet, true leadership in global pharma requires not more than manufacturing prowess—it demands cutting-edge innovation in biotechnology, precision medicine, and drug discovery. For India to emerge as a global research hub, deeper collaboration between academia, biotech startups, and global pharma giants will be crucial. 

Building on last year’s initiatives, the budget further expands access to life-saving medicines. In 2024, the government granted a full exemption from basic customs duty on three essential cancer drugs: Trastuzumab Deruxtecan (for breast cancer), Osimertinib (for lung cancer with specific genetic mutations), and Durvalumab (an immunotherapy drug for lung and bladder cancers).

Now, the list of exempt medicines has expanded to include 36 life-saving drugs, with duty on six others reduced to 5 per cent. Notable exemptions are Onasemnogene abeparvovec, Asciminib, Mepolizumab, Pegylated Liposomal Irinotecan, and Daratumumab.

This initiative is particularly noteworthy for oncology and rare diseases, where treatment costs remain a major barrier. The inclusion of drugs such as Tepotinib (for non-small cell lung cancer), Avelumab (a monoclonal antibody therapy for various cancers), and Asciminib (for white blood cell malignancies) reflects a forward-looking approach to strengthening India’s healthcare ecosystem. 

Additionally, exemptions on Alglucosidase Alfa (for Pompe disease) and Mepolizumab (for severe asthma) offer much-needed relief to patients with these debilitating conditions. By also reducing duties on bulk drugs essential for manufacturing these therapies, the budget supports domestic pharma innovation, lowering production costs and fostering long-term sustainability.

A groundbreaking initiative in the budget is the establishment of 200 daycare cancer centres in district hospitals by 2025-26, a move that could significantly decentralise oncology care. Cancer remains one of the greatest public health challenges, and these centres represent a vital step in bridging the urban-rural divide in access to treatment. However, their success will depend on integrating advanced telemedicine, AI-driven diagnostics, and remote consultation models—innovations that have already transformed cancer care in leading global institutions. India must seize this moment to build a nationwide oncology ecosystem that blends high-tech solutions with community-based care. 

While infrastructure expansion is essential, the broader vision must include a shift toward preventive healthcare. The budget’s emphasis on early screenings, public health campaigns, and digital health monitoring signals a necessary evolution in healthcare strategy. India stands at the cusp of a data-driven healthcare revolution, where predictive analytics, wearable health technologies, and AI-driven risk assessment models could redefine how diseases are detected and managed at scale. 

Furthermore, the budget underscores the importance
of a robust digital healthcare ecosystem, envisioning a seamless, interoperable framework that enhances diagnostics, precision medicine, and public health policymaking.

(The writer is the founder and chairman of a healthcare company)