India’s healthcare infrastructure has many cracks in its system which not only affects the overall healthcare outcomes of the country but also creates problems in delivering services for population health. The policymakers and government need to focus on these three challenges for bridging the huge gap in the infrastructure and fulfill the healthcare goals.

• The lack of medical investment to bring out the necessary developments and changes.
• The inefficiency, dysfunction, and acute shortage of public healthcare systems in both rural areas, which includes a terrible shortage of qualified doctors and nurses. 
• 80% of the population doesn’t have healthcare insurance coverage and 68% of people do not have access to medicines. 

Healthcare organizations need to take a firm look at adopting emerging technology in order to optimize the services available and reduce the pressure on the already exhausted workforce of physicians. Advanced technologies such as machine learning, computer vision, and robotics have the ability to be a driver for healthcare inclusiveness, making digital adoption an important factor for urban and rural hospitals. Engineering Research & Development organizations have an important role to play here, as their expertise in design, development, validation and rapid prototyping can accelerate medical breakthroughs, while new product development and adaptive intelligence solutions can help reduce the barriers between hospitals and patients, especially in India’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

The transition of the health system to collaborative and preventive healthcare will neutralize much of the challenges faced by suburbs and Tier 2 cities today. While robotic technology is currently costly for wider implementation in all types of healthcare settings, in-roads in India have already been made specifically with regard to robotic assistants in surgery. Moreover, because of the danger posed by Covid-19, many hospitals recently switched to robots as maintaining social distance became the norm.

India’s healthcare infrastructure