As India heads toward the centenary year of independence it is time to reflect on the milestones of the past and chart out a roadmap for where we wish to be. The government has asked individual ministries to drop an action plan for change with an emphasis on improving the ease of living, the ease of doing business, education, healthcare, climate action, and more.

While the government readies its plans, CNBC-TV18 in association with IIM Kozhikode has launched leadership series to engage in a meaningful dialogue to map out what the key drivers for social and economic growth should be. To capture our aspirations as a nation and draw up a charter of change that will shape the idea of India in 2047.

Known as the world’s pharmacy, India exports more than $20 billion worth of affordable medicines annually and fulfills over half of the global demand for vaccines. In fact, made in India, COVID vaccines have saved lives in as many as 96 countries. Close to home the pandemic has brought pace and urgency to reinvent outdated healthcare delivery models. The groundwork for the digital transformation of healthcare is underway with the National Digital Health stack and data is encouraging with 400 million smartphone-friendly Indians having used a digital health service at least once. Playing their part, more than 7,000 health-tech startups are bringing digital costs for India’s broken healthcare system. However, for India to become the world’s laboratory for tech-lead innovations in healthcare, it needs not one but several booster shots. Research-linked incentives are perhaps required for India to move up the global healthcare value chain.

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While the annual budget allocation for R&D remains below 1 percent, India’s overall healthcare expenditure of around 2 percent of its GDP also falls short of the global average.

CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan spoke to Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson of Biocon; Suneeta Reddy, Managing Director at Apollo Hospitals Group; Professor Debashis Chatterjee, Director at IIM Kozhikode about the future of India’s healthcare sector.

Shaw said, “I believe that this is an opportunity that the country has to leapfrog our healthcare system, which is really very, very weak and, and needs to modernise. Digital technologies, in my view, are going to play a very important role to improve that infrastructure.”

Reddy said, “First, we should look at what the country needs, and definitely to build social infrastructure, the country needs healthcare, so it should be given priority. The second aspect of it is to look at healthcare very much as what we can do for the rest of the world.”

Watch video for more.