As India continues to emerge as one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies, its progress in health and human development remains an important area of focus. The persistent burden of communicable diseases like tuberculosis and malaria now collides with an alarming double burden of non-communicable lifestyle and environmental diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular conditions. India accounted for around 25% of the world’s tuberculosis cases in 2024, making it the country with the largest share of the global TB burden. At the same time, NCDs have become a dominant cause of mortality: WHO estimates that 63% of deaths in India are attributable to NCDs, with cardiovascular diseases alone accounting for 27% of deaths.
This calls for a new approach to look at India’s emerging health emergencies, to ensure a more robust and preventive medical ecosystem by 2035. Therefore, to build a resilient nation, we must acknowledge that human wellbeing is an outcome of complex, interrelated factors involving people, their activities, and the environment.
True transformation cannot happen through piecemeal, isolated fixes. Instead, long-term stability can only be achieved if the five pillars of the health care system—technology, infrastructure, workforce, governance, and financing—are addressed synchronously. This requires a profound mindset shift: moving away from an ego-centric model of isolated, hospital-based interventions toward an eco-centric commitment that values planetary health, equity, and sustainability.
Technology cuts across all spheres of the health care ecosystem and in India it is actively reshaping the foundational architecture. India is leveraging both clinical innovations (e.g., robotic assistance), and digital frameworks (e.g., the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission). The Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) serves as a vital layer for digital health identity and interoperable Electronic Health Records (EHR). However, these are still work in progress. For the next decade, India must prioritise a bottom-up, data-driven network where people’s records are securely accessible across primary, secondary, and tertiary tiers. This enables real-time monitoring and proactive, preventative wellness.
Speaking about wellness and preventative care, India is so well positioned with the best of traditional medical systems (AYUSH), which have not yet been fully leveraged. True equity can be achieved by integrating evidenced AYUSH practices into primary care networks and in homes, especially for health promotive and preventive care. Combining traditional practices with modern digital diagnostics creates an affordable, culturally accepted, sustainable and resilient model that can reduce the overall load on public health facilities.
An infrastructure that leans heavily towards urban, tertiary hospital care cannot manage India’s double burden of diseases and evolving health needs. We must shift from centralised, resource-heavy institutions to a decentralised, ecologically sustainable infrastructure network. Technologies can help take health care to the villages, households and individuals.
Building physical facilities is meaningless without synchronous transformation in governance and financing. Financial models must pivot away from merely funding reactive and resource heavy tertiary care to investing heavily in primary care and preventative public health initiatives. Robust governance frameworks are required to regulate quality, protect data privacy within digital health records, and ensure equitable resource allocation between urban and rural centres. Synchronising infrastructure with sound governance prevents systemic leakages and ensures that public funding directly translates into grassroots accessibility.
The workforce of the future must be equipped with digital literacy, systems thinking, and data fluency. Alongside the demand for a technologically fluent workforce in the clinical/allied health space, there is an emerging demand for digital health and health informatics specialists, AI and machine learning health care engineers, integrative health practitioners, epidemiologists and biostatisticians and health care managers.
A modern medical worker will need to collaborate seamlessly with data scientists, environmental engineers, and community leaders to address the structural and environmental determinants of health. It is important that education/training of the health care professionals must place equal weight on emotional and social quotients (EQ and SQ) and develop a deep capacity for empathy and multi-disciplinary collaboration. Building these cross-curricular competencies through practice-based learning is vital to ensure our frontline workforce is equipped for complex, real-world problem solving.
Emerging innovations, from artificial intelligence in diagnostics to decentralised point-of-care devices, play a transformative role in making healthcare efficient and resilient. In a geographically diverse nation, localised innovation acts as a powerful equaliser to bridge the urban-rural divide.
AI-driven triaging and telemedicine extend the reach of scarce specialists to remote regions, drastically reducing costs. By empowering primary health centres with self-sustaining diagnostic tools, the wider health care system becomes less vulnerable to sudden public health crises. Innovation transforms a rigid, fragile structure into an adaptable network capable of absorbing unexpected disruptions.
Modernising India’s health care system is a collective responsibility that demands active participation from academia, institutional leaders, and the public. By synchronously reinforcing technology, infrastructure, workforce, governance, and financing, India can transition from a state of mere disease management to a culture of universal wellness. The path forward requires a shared vision, clear milestones, and an unwavering commitment to building an eco-centric, resilient system capable of safeguarding the health of generations to come.
(The views expressed are personal)
This article is authored by Dr Padma Venkat, dean, School of Health Sciences and Technology, UPES.
