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The healthcare sector in India produced 32 billionaires in 2022, more than any other sector, in an extraordinary demonstration of corporatization Indian healthcare has undergone, according to Abhay Shukla, co-convenor of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, the People’s Health Movement in India.
How Corporatization Indian Healthcare Has Driven Unnecessary Procedures
Massive investment in healthcare by private companies since the 1990s, particularly in “corporate, profit-driven hospitals,” has sent non-essential procedures and treatments skyrocketing. For example, 48% of births in private hospitals are now Caesarean sections, in comparison to 14% in public health in India, said Shukla. The World Health Organization recommends a rate of 10-15%.
A Striking Gap Between Practice and Medical Guidance
“Two out of three Caesareans taking place in India are medically unnecessary. This is huge. We’re talking about hundreds of millions of women,” said Shukla, addressing a symposium on the growing influence of powerful private actors on global health, convened by the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health and Third World Network in Kuala Lumpur.
Other Signs of Corporatization Indian Healthcare Has Introduced
Unnecessary thrombolysis for stroke patients, additional cancer treatments and getting higher-paid consultants to perform basic procedures that could be done by frontline ER physicians to enable higher billing, are other examples of what the corporatization of health has done to Indian healthcare.
Why These Patterns Matter
These examples suggest that financial incentives embedded in a profit-driven hospital model may be shaping clinical decision-making in ways that go beyond patient need, raising questions about how billing structures and consultant fee arrangements influence which procedures patients ultimately receive.
Private Investment Fueling Corporatization Indian Healthcare
Private equity and venture capital investment in Indian healthcare, as a percentage of total PEVC investment in India, doubled from 5% during 2017-2019, the pre-Covid years, to almost 10% during 2020-2023, with a record 18% in 2023.
A Sector That Started With Pharma and Expanded Into Services
Initially focused on pharmaceutical investment, investment in healthcare services has boomed since 2006, when the government made it easier for foreign direct investment in Indian companies. Healthcare investment boomed during COVID-19, rising to $413 million in 2021, compared with $160 million in 2019/20, reflecting how the pandemic accelerated capital flows into an already growing sector.
What This Means for the Future of Indian Healthcare
The scale of corporatization Indian healthcare has undergone raises important questions about the balance between private investment-driven growth and patient care standards, particularly as procedure rates like Caesarean sections continue to run well above international medical guidance. As private equity and venture capital continue increasing their share of healthcare investment nationally, the tension between profit incentives and clinically appropriate care identified by researchers like Shukla is likely to remain a central point of debate among public health advocates, policymakers, and the private hospital sector itself.
What to Watch Going Forward
As international attention on the influence of powerful private actors in global health continues, symposiums like the one convened by UNU-IIGH and Third World Network may increasingly scrutinize how corporatization Indian healthcare has experienced compares to similar trends in other middle-income countries, and whether regulatory interventions could help realign financial incentives with medically appropriate care standards.
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