Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Union Budget 2023-2024 on 1st Feb 2023. The finance minister highlights that the Indian economy has increased in size from being tenth to 5th largest in the world in the last nine years. She announced various programmes for healthcare sector.

“During the COVID pandemic, we ensured that nobody goes to bed hungry with a scheme to supply free food grains to over 80 crore persons for 28 months,” said finance minister Sitharaman.

5 Takeaways for Healthcare:

Here are some initiatives taken towards healthcare sector in Union Budget:

• The industry will be encouraged to invest in research and new programme will be formulated for research in pharmaceuticals.

• The new mission will be launched to eliminate sickle cell anaemia by 2047. 7 crore people in the 0-40 years age group in affected tribal areas will be screened for sickle cell anaemia.

• 157 new nursing colleges will be established in co-locations.

• 3 Centers of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence will be established in the top academic institutions to realize the vision of making AI in India and making AI work for India.

• About Rs. 2 lakh crore under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana is being borne by the central government, for supplying free food grains for one year to all Antyodaya and priroity households.

How the decisions taken in union budget will help healthcare:

The healthcare sector will improve by implementing these initiatives announced in Union Budget 2023-2024. By providing free food grains to poor people, we will decrease their chances of catching any disease. Nursing staff will be increased in hospitals as more students can now enroll in the nursing colleges that are to be established. New medicines can be produced by launching a new programme for R&D in the pharmaceutical industry. Common Blood disorder Sickle cell anaemia will be eliminated and increasing AI technology by establishing centre's for teaching artificial intelligence.

Post-Budget reaction of Healthcare Experts:

"The Central Government has taken due cognizance of the contributions made by the Medical Devices segment to the overall healthcare industry in general and the Covid period in particular. ICMR Labs across the country will be made available to the corporate and manufacturing sector for the development of Medtech products. This will specially be beneficial for the Medtech start-up ecosystem. The Government has also announced the setting up of 100 labs for the development of 5G applications. The digital ecosystem is key for the delivery of the MedTech solutions, MedTech Telemedicine, and Digital Health will majorly benefit from this move," said Jatin Mahajan , Secretary of Association of Diagnostic Manufacturers of India (ADMI).

“Quantitively, the budget is in line with the on-going economic reforms. The middle class will have more disposable income, propelling more expenditure by them. The proposed spend on infrastructure will further propel growth. Qualitatively, there is even more in the budget, showing the government’s stride towards getting reforms which will change the thinking of citizens, getting more transparency into the system, thereby fortifying the path towards making India a superpower as well as self-reliant.” said Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, Chairman FICCI Gujarat Council and founder & CEO, Hester Biosciences Ltd on the Union Budget.