As per government data on national income, India’s per capital income for FY 2018-19 was Rs 10,534/$146 per month. While this is an improvement, we still have a long way to go, before we can say that our economic growth is positively impacting all segments of society. As we see more seed funding for startups in India, we also need to see more innovative solutions-built ground up to solve some of our biggest challenges around healthcare and education as a whole. Some of these challenges are:

How to provide quality and affordable healthcare for all? *India has 9 hospital beds per 10,000 people, while the US has 30. We also have several government clinics and hospitals across the country. However, the poor quality of these places, drives people to private institutions which are expensive and already choked to full capacity. Here is where we need to see more entrepreneurs come up with ground up innovative solutions connecting existing underutilized infrastructure to more patients along with building new services and solutions for them. And while there are already several well-known healthcare startups, we still have a large opportunity in this space.
How to provide access to quality education? As per the Ministry of Human Resource Development, education needs a greater focus on accessibility, equity and quality. In a country like India, education is a way out of poverty for many. However, we still face challenges on both ends, of providing access to primary education to all and improving employability of the educated youth. As many startup funding programs in India focus on skill development, we need more products and services that tackle both of these problems. We also have many government schools and programs, that startups can work with to provide better management solutions through the reach that they offer. It just requires more out of the box thinking.
I believe we are at an infliction point today, where the next decade will determine if we are able to grow while bringing development for all. As there is a growth in initial funding for startups in India, we need to see more startups tap into that capital to provide solutions for solving some of these important problems around healthcare and education. After all, it is only through development for all that we can bring sustainable economic growth for all.

*Quartz’s India article by Vijay Govindrajan.