Dr. SN Panda shares Chitkara University’s Research Projects at 91st Annual General Meeting of FICCI
Dr. SN Panda, Director Research, CURIN, was invited to the 91st Annual General Meeting of Federation of the Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), held on December 14-15, 2018, in New Delhi. The theme for this year’s Annual Meet and deliberations was “Building New India”.
The event was inaugurated by Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs. Speaking here while inaugurating the 91st Annual General Meeting of FICCI, Mr Jaitley said if the current growth rate is maintained and if our global position is retained, we will be able to get out of the range of 7-8 per cent growth. In order to achieve this, however, it was important to identify several unreformed sectors such as state road transportation, railways, dealing with urbanization, focusing on science & technology and research, he added.
During the Annual Meet, Dr SN Panda also got an opportunity to meet Ms Sangita Reddy, Vice President, FICCI and Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group. He shared Chitkara University’s undergoing Research Projects with her, and also apprised her regarding Chitkara University’s innovation – Potable Intensive Care Unit Health Care Device. Talking about the future of healthcare, Ms Reddy opined that the future of healthcare will be determined by 3Bs: Biology (role of genetics), Bytes (processing and computing ability and Artificial Intelligence) and Bandwidth (connectivity).
Ms Reddy said that healthcare, the world’s largest sector in terms of the total spend, is going to see a lot of transformation in times to come. India spends 5 per cent of its GDP on healthcare taking public and private spend together, she said. The private sector is primarily the driver of the healthcare sector, contributing 80% to advanced care and 20% to secondary care. Also, health is the 2nd largest reason for rural distress and indebtedness. She concluded by saying that India can become an epicentre of healthcare by providing value care at 1/10th of the cost in the developed world.
During the discussion session, Mr Rashesh Shah, President, FICCI, said, “Building a New India, the theme of FICCI’s AGM this year, is about change, the accompanying discomfort, the ensuing progress and most importantly, a shared belief in our bright future.” He added, “India of today is replete with opportunities in all directions. We are well and truly into our Golden Age of Compounding where our strong and consistent GDP growth rate will help drive us to reach a GDP of USD 5 trillion by 2025 and USD 40 trillion by 2040. We are on the course of becoming a truly global economic superpower. However, supporting this compounding growth is the democratisation of credit. The world over, true economic growth is always preceded by credit access to masses. India is seeing this with the Jan Dhan Yojana laying the foundation.”
Moderating the session Dr Ajay Chhibber, Chief Economic Advisor, FICCI, said that health, energy and infrastructure were the keys to building a New India. He emphasized on building India as an economic superpower with prosperity and happiness leading to more competitiveness.
