From The Economic Times · ET CONTRIBUTORS · · 2m
Power to empower must include power to stay well
India's health strategy could boost its global influence by preventing chronic disease in workers.
In brief
India's health strategy could boost its global influence by preventing chronic disease in workers. India must prioritize health as national power to unlock its workforce potential and share prevention tools globally. Originally reported by The Economic Times.
Bloomberg Forum theme
Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted India's digital public infrastructure, vaccines for 100+ countries, generic medicines, and 2000+ global capability centres at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.
“power to empower: power that enables rather than controls, and helps others succeed”
Working population peak
India's working-age share peaks around the early 2040s, with 14.9 crore Indians aged 60+ in 2022 projected to rise to 34.7 crore by 2050.
Chronic disease burden
10.1 crore Indians have diabetes, 13.6 crore have prediabetes, and 31.5 crore have high blood pressure, causing 60% of deaths.
Economic impact
Non-communicable diseases could cost India over $4 trillion in lost output between 2012 and 2030, according to a World Economic Forum and Harvard study.
CoWIN success
India managed 220 crore vaccine doses through CoWIN, sharing the platform as free, open-source software globally.
Digital health progress
By July 2026, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission will have 94 crore health IDs and 105 crore health records linked across 5.33 lakh facilities.
Prevention gap
Current digital health records document past care, but a prevention layer could identify rising risks like blood sugar and blood pressure trends before crises.
AI for health
AI tools could track health risks and route people to follow-up before emergencies, similar to vaccination drives for chronic disease.
AI safeguards
Business leaders like Noubar Afeyan and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw called for tighter AI safeguards, especially for health data consent and insurance access.
India's global role
India has signed digital public infrastructure agreements with 24 countries and offers 18 platforms through India Stack Global.
Action plan
India must track healthy life expectancy, build consent-first prevention layers, upskill prevention workers, treat prevention as capital expenditure, and share the system globally.
Power to stay well
India's health strategy could unlock workforce potential and share prevention tools globally, fulfilling the Prime Minister's 'power to empower' vision.
Here's the gist
India must prioritize health as national power to unlock its workforce potential and share prevention tools globally.
