Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy has called for increasing public investments in healthcare. The country’s dreams to benefit from the demographic dividend could be shattered if it failed to invest in the public healthcare system. Though India fared better in terms of increasing life expectancy and infant mortality rates over the last few decades, it is still way behind than some other countries, he said.

Addressing the BioAsia-2017 conference here on Wednesday, he said the contribution of non-communicable diseases in the overall deaths was very high and this was impacting the people in the productive age group of 35 to 65 years. “There is a need to increase the number of physicians by 49 per cent, dentists by 106 per cent and trained nurses by 185 per cent,” he said. Quoting reports, he said the country was not faring well on immunisation ratios as well. Disparities among the States were too very high in some healthcare parameters. “The South fared better than the North and North-Eastern States,” he said.

He said science and technology can help bridge the gaps in the healthcare system.

Published on February 8, 2017