2018 Budget Expectations – Gagan Singh Bedi, MD, AstraZeneca

The single most important recommendation from industry remains that of increasing healthcare spend as share of GDP especially to address the high disease burden in the country. Impetus also needs to be provided to research & development to encourage innovation in India which currently stands at a meagre 0.69% of GDP. Effective implementation of the National Health Policy 2017 is needed for prevention and management of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, asthma, heart diseases and cancer which is now becoming the leading cause of mortality in our country.