Budget 2021: Healthcare may finally get its due thanks to COVID-19
India has long been languishing at the bottom of the health-spending pecking order. The pandemic might significantly change the scene.
Representative image: AP
The COVID-19 pandemic, one of the biggest health emergencies of our times, may well propel the Centre to significantly increase spending on public health in the coming fiscal. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already spoken of a Budget like “never before” and hinted at an increased emphasis on healthcare in FY22.
India has long been languishing at the bottom of the health-spending pecking order, with the latest Oxfam report showing that the country s expenditure on health as a percentage of the total budget is the fourth lowest anywhere in the world.
New strain of Covid-19 unlikely to affect India’s vaccine strategy: scientists
A health worker in personal protective equipment (PPE) checks the temperature of a passenger at a railway station, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), in Mumbai, India November 27, 2020. Photo: Reuters Star Online Report Star Online Report
Senior Indian scientists have said the Covid-19 mutations can be addressed by the vaccines which are being developed across the world and are unlikely to affect India s vaccine strategy. The genetic structure of every virus changes. This Covid-19 virus is slow to mutate. There is no reason to worry as yet, reports our New Delhi correspondent quoting epidemiologist Raman Gangakhedkar, former head scientist at Indian Council of Medical Research, India s apex research forum.