At the Pune International Centre–Wipro lecture series on science, technology, and society, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, principal advisor at the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme and former Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization, made a compelling call for greater government investment in healthcare. She stressed that boosting public health funding is the only way to ensure quality care reaches the most vulnerable populations.
“India spends less than 2% of its annual budget on health, while other BRICS nations spend up to 8%,” she pointed out, urging policymakers to make healthcare a true national priority. Dr. Swaminathan explained that while disruptive technologies have immense potential to transform health outcomes, their success depends on strong foundations, robust primary healthcare systems, reliable population-level data, ethical and evidence-based research, and a…
