BENGALURU: Narayana Health on Saturday announced the expansion of its Udaan programme, a long-term initiative aimed at enabling students from economically weaker backgrounds to pursue medical and nursing education in government institutions.
Founder and Chairman Dr Devi Shetty said the programme continues to scale up to strengthen India’s healthcare workforce.
During the current academic year, Udaan supported over 1,600 students, including around 800 MBBS students studying in government medical colleges and 800 nursing students enrolled in government institutions across the country. The programme is fully funded through Narayana Health’s corporate social responsibility initiatives and does not receive financial assistance from state or central governments.
“The government’s biggest contribution is building government medical colleges, where education is available at minimal cost. Our role is to help talented students from low socio-economic backgrounds access these institutions,” Dr Shetty said.
He added that the initiative would continue to expand as the organisation grows financially.
Dr Shetty also announced that Narayana Health is planning to launch an affordable health insurance scheme aimed at lower-income families, offering coverage of up to Rs 3 lakh for an annual premium of Rs 3,500.
“If we can convince people to contribute even Rs 10 a day, the price of a cup of coffee, we can solve the healthcare problem of this country,” he said, Dr Shetty added that the scheme is intended to cover India’s large working-class population currently outside formal insurance systems.