Health Of The Nation

In 2022, in an essay on this blog imagining India @ 100 , I let myself picture 2047 and did not much like what I saw. The country was larger and richer, yet also older and less healthy, weighed down by a rising burden of non-communicable disease and a protection gap that refused to close. I wrote then that insurance penetration had improved but still trailed its peers. I also noted that the regulator, taking a leaf from the Reserve Bank of India's book, had begun opening the sector to mutuals and cooperatives to reach those the market had overlooked. It was a thought experiment. What has changed since is that 2047 is no longer only my imagined horizon. It has become an official one. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has made an official mission of “Insurance for All by 2047”, placing it within the government's broader Viksit Bharat plan. The aim is for every citizen to have appropriate life, health, and property cover, for every enterprise to b...

Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha on 28 July 2026, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav, informed Parliament that over 447.3 million Ayushman cards have now been generated under the Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), and that as of 30 June 2026, the scheme had authorised 126.9 million hospital admissions worth INR 1,920 billion. A post on this blog in December 2020 ( PMJAY: Average cost per treatment is 2.5 per cent of the sum assured ) ran a simple back-of-the-envelope calculation. At that time, the scheme had recorded about 14 million admissions worth INR 175 billion, averaging INR 12,500 per admitted patient. The question raised then was whether a scheme whose average claim was this modest really needed a headline cover of up to INR 500,000 per family per year. Five and a half years on, the same arithmetic is worth repeating. The average cost of treatment has increased from INR 12,500 to INR 15,130. On the face of it,...

The fifth National Family Health Survey 2019-21 (NFHS-5) conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, provides extensive insights on population, health and nutrition at the country and state/union territory level and even the estimates at the district level. The survey touches on over 130 parameters across 21 sub-categories, with some specific to women and children and others aimed at a broader population. It also provides a comparison of the performance of the urban and rural population. For the first time, the sex ratio of the total population (females per 1,000 males) crossed the four-figure mark. It stood at 1,020 females per 1,000 males vis-à-vis 991 in NFHS-4 conducted in 2015-16. This is a significant achievement and success of the government measures against the practice of female infanticide. A major contribution towards this achievement is the enactment of Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (PNDT) Act, 1994, which prohibits sex selection and the mi...

In his monthly Mann Ki Baat address of February 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concerns over the increasing incidence of obesity in the country. The PM highlighted the incidence of rising obesity in the country is not just impacting adults but is even more pronounced among children. In fact, the rate of obesity growth in children is twice that of adults. Let us try and understand why the incidence of obesity is a cause of concern. What is Obesity According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), obesity is defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. A person is considered obese if the Body Mass Index (BMI) is over 30.  Incidence of Obesity in India According to a study published in the journal of Annals of Neurosciences in 2021, the prevalence of obesity in India was 40.3 per cent. In other words, two out of five people in India are obese. A 2024 Lancet study classified India as the third most obese nation behind the US and China,...

Earlier this month, the Union Labour and Employment minister, Mansukh Mandaviya announced the government of India's plans to provide social security to gig and platform workers. He said the government is exploring avenues to ensure these workers are covered under social security. To be eligible for social security benefits, these gig and platform workers will have to register on the eShram portal. For platform workers, the aggregators can take the lead and register their partners/workers on the portal. Who is an Unorganised Worker? Any worker who is a home-based worker, self-employed worker or a wage worker in the unorganised sector and also includes a worker in the organised sector who is not a member of the Employee Provident Fund Office (EPFO), Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and neither is a government employee. Gig and Platform Workers in India According to the National Institute for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog report titled “India's Booming Gig & Platf...

Section 2(8) of the Electricity Act, 2003 defines a captive generating plant as “ a power plant set up by any person to generate electricity primarily for his own use and includes a power plant set up by any co-operative society or association of persons for generating electricity for use of members of such co-operative society or association ”. The captive power generators can use the electricity for themselves and can also contribute to the power grid. Traditionally, captive power plants are used by energy-intensive industries/businesses such as steel plants and aluminum smelters to meet their own energy requirements and provide an uninterrupted power supply. However, since the advancements in renewable energy production technology sources such as wind and solar energy and the availability of windmills and mobile/rooftop solar panels, even individuals or cooperative societies fall under the ambit of captive power generators.  The captive power policy in India came into existence ...

We are beyond the halfway mark in the journey towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (Agenda 2030), and it's a good time to reflect on the progress of the proposed objectives. For beginners, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 was established in 2015 as a successor to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). SDGs are a set of 17 goals with 169 targets as determined by each country. India, one of the SDGs' signatories, also established its targets for the achievement of these goals. According to the Sustainable Development Report 2024 (https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/rankings), based on the overall progress made, India ranks 109 out of 167 countries with a score of 63.99 on a scale of 100. According to the data, India has made consistent progress year-on-year towards achieving these goals. However, the performance is not uniform across 17 goals. Of the 17 goals, India is on track or maintaining SDG achievement on only two goals: SDG 1 (Zero Pover...

The year is 2047 and India is basking in its centenary year of freedom from British Rule. The most populous  country  is ecstatic. There is joy  and  pride among its  1.5 billion-plus  citizens. And why not? The country has come a long way from its years of infancy. Like an infant dependent on others for care and nutrition, the initial years of the nation were import-dependent,  and  it achieved self-sufficiency in food and nutrition in its adulthood (the  decades of  20s and 30s  since independence ) through green and white revolutions. It took a bold decision to open itself and become a market-driven economy in its 40s and made its presence felt globally through  its 50s and 60s and was the cynosure of all eyes. Age was merely a number as the nation began to make rapid strides and continued to rise the fastest it ever had. And finally came the moment when the nation made its entry into the big boys' club (breaking into t...

With each passing day, managing risk is becoming increasingly critical. One of the most important and widely used tools of managing risk is insurance. Hence, today we see availability of insurance for almost everything from life, health, home, automobile, climate mitigation, electronic gadgets, data, travel, among host of other everyday things. While the most widely used insurance products are based on the principles of risk transfer to a third party or an underwriter for a premium, the oldest form of insurance is based on redistribution or risk sharing. It is known as Mutual or Cooperative insurance where a group of people come together to support one another through a mutual contribution. In case of insurance through a joint stock company, the insurer charges a premium to provide a risk coverage to the insured for a pre-defined event. In case of the occurrence of that event, the insurer pays the sum assured. If the said event doesn’t occur, the insurer gets to retain the premium. I...