Despite fractious politics and short-term populism, Indian growth rate at about 7% per annum, is next only to China’s among major economies.  This reflects the underlying strength of our economy.  However, comparisons with China are inevitable, given our comparable sizes, length of history and civilization, and somewhat parallel developments after the Second World War.

One of the challenges facing us today is providing reasonable quality healthcare to all people, irrespective of birth, caste, status and wealth. We are one of the most poorly served countries in terms of health care. And yet we have an impressive infrastructure of medical institutions.