Innovation is of critical importance to India to ensure that our future development is sustainable, and inclusive. More than at any time in the past, the value placed on innovation is being measured on its social impact. Affordable innovation, which presents ways to innovate, be flexible, and do more with less, is a practical, alternative model that can help a complex and resource-constrained country like India address its myriad challenges. India faces a huge healthcare challenge as a severe lack of resources means that even basic health services remain inaccessible in many parts of the country. Long-standing apathy towards addressing social determinants of disease and ensuring high-quality, accountable, universal healthcare for people have ensured India languishes among the worst-performing countries in health matters. A model based on affordable innovation can ensure healthcare is “available” and “accessible” on a sustainable basis for every citizen of the country with minimum financial burden. However innovation in India faces multiple challenges such as a multiplicity of regulations, low risk appetite among investors, stagnant R&D spending, shortfall of scientific talent, and poor patenting culture. To deliver affordable healthcare, India needs to incentivise innovation -- innovation in discovering drugs, developing therapeutics and delivering healthcare. The nation’s innovation capability needs to be boosted with the right kind of fiscal incentives, policy support, financing mechanisms, human capital and best-in-class infrastructure. The “affordable innovation” mantra needs to find a resonance in the technology, strategies, practices and policies implemented in the country. This aim should be to create an ecosystem that incentivises a virtuous cycle of basic and applied science where knowledge is seamlessly translated into practical solutions to address unmet healthcare needs. India also needs to focus on increased adoption of technology to help transform the country’s public healthcare system and ensure a healthy future for all Indians.
