NEW DELHI: India’s health budget saw a meagre hike of three per cent, with a total allotment of Rs 89,155 crores in the Union Budget 2023 against last year’s Rs 86,200 crores.
Though the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman put a thrust on research and innovation, the Department of Health Research, under the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, saw a nine per cent dip in budget allocation.
Announcing the new programme to promote research and innovation in pharmaceuticals, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “A new programme to promote research and innovation in pharmaceuticals will be taken up through centres of excellence. We shall also encourage industry to invest in research and development in specific priority areas.”
Also, select Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) laboratories would have facilities for research by faculty members of private and public medical colleges and private sector research and development (R&D) teams in a bid to encourage “collaborative research and innovation.”
Though there were no big-ticket announcements this year, Sitharaman announced the setting up of 157 new nursing colleges. A project to eliminate sickle cell anaemia, a blood disorder commonly seen among tribals, would also be launched by 2047.
“Dedicated multidisciplinary courses for medical devices will be supported in existing institutions to ensure availability of skilled manpower for futuristic medical technologies, high-end manufacturing and research,” Sitharaman said.
This time, however, the centre did not allocate any funds for Covid-19 vaccination.
According to former director of Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) Dr K S Reddy, “The budget signals a shift from Covid-driven commitment to health to infrastructure-led economic development. Given the expanded mandate of comprehensive primary healthcare in both rural and urban areas, the National Health Mission should have had a higher allocation."
“The incentives for health research and new drug development, through public-private partnerships, are likely to spur research and development if they are managed well. Digital Health gets a further boost keeping in with India’s national needs and global leadership aspirations,” Dr Reddy told TNIE.
Added Dr Sarit Kumar Rout, Additional Professor, Indian Institute of Public Health Bhubaneswar, PHFI, “Overall health and health research allocations have gone up by less than four percent in 2023-24 (Budget Estimates) compared to 2022-23, which is not even inflation adjusted.”
The ministry was allocated Rs 89,155 crore in the union budget 2024 as compared to Rs 86,200 crore last year, which is a mere 3.46 per cent hike, Rout told The New Indian Express and added that the budget estimate for the department of health research is Rs 2,980 crore, which is less than last year’s estimate of Rs 3,200 crore, a nine per cent dip.
Two schemes of the government got a considerable hike in the union budget this time. The Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PMABHIM), under which the government tries to fill gaps in health infrastructure, was allocated Rs 4200 crore as against Rs 4176 crore last year and the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM).
The NDHM got a budgetary allocation of Rs. 341 crores against Rs 200 crore last year.
Also, the government’s flagship health insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, under which nearly 50 crores people receive cashless hospitalisation benefits of up to Rs 5 lakh, was allocated Rs 7,200 crore in 2024, higher than the budget allocation of Rs. 6412 crore in 2022-23.
This time, however, the centre did not allocate any funds for Covid-19 vaccination.
Describing the health budget as “disappointing”, former Union Health Secretary Sujatha Rao said, “Most boring budget so far as the health sector is concerned. Barring setting up 157 nursing colleges, nothing else for health that is crying for huge capital investment and some financial risk protection for the lower middle classes. Yet another year has gone by. Very disappointing.”
The government plan to set up more nursing colleges in India also didn’t cheer the medical fraternity. “The plan to increase medical colleges and nursing colleges is not really required. I oppose the budgetary plan of creating buildings and not creating opportunities,” Dr Rohan Krishnan, National Chairman, FAIMA Doctors Association, told The New Indian Express.
The Association of Indian Medical Device Industry coordinator Rajiv Nath said that the budget had no announcement for the Indian medical device industry, which is heavily dependent on imports.