India coronavirus dispatch: Poor spending heightens vulnerability to crisis

Expert speak
 

India spent one per cent of GDP on public health for 15 Years. Result is vulnerability to crises: With the Covid-19, India’s public health sector has been pushed to firefight an unprecedented health crisis. But it is unrealistic to expect an already overburdened sector to do the heavy lifting without the required government support. The allocation for health in the Rs 20 trillion ($260 billion) stimulus package announced by the central government on May 12, 2020, is grossly insufficient and amounts to 0.008 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Read this interview