Fortis’ investment in Parkway of Singapore could well be the turning point for the Indian health-care sector. In 2010, health care is already India’s second-largest consumer-spending sector. At about Rs 180,000 crore in size, it is significantly smaller than Indians’ spending on food and grocery, but already more than what they spend on clothing and also more than all other sectors.
With a growth rate of over 15 per cent per year in the last decade, and this growth is likely to be sustained for decades to come on account of several factors, including the most obvious: the country’s population may touch the 1.2 billion mark by the time the next census is concluded in 2011, and then add another 150-odd million in the next 10 years alone! By 2020, the size of India’s health-care industry may well be over Rs 600,000 crore.
