The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose great risk to the health and safety of India’s population. The continued threat of new variants, has reinforced the need to boost investments and partnerships in the health sector.
India has the potential to generate a staggering $774 billion revenue in the healthcare sector by 2030, suggests a new report by Aspire Circle, a social impact leadership champion and advocate. The report showed that with an investment of $217 billion, the country can create 12 million jobs in healthcare and allied sectors, which can impact 1.5 billion lives by 2030.
India’s third largest private sector bank, Axis Bank, has committed to strengthen India’s healthcare infrastructure by signing an MoU with IPE Global Ltd for the SAMRIDH Healthcare Blended Finance Facility.
Under this partnership, Axis Bank will provide affordable finance of up to $150 million through SAMRIDH, to support health enterprises and innovators who would otherwise not have access to affordable debt financing. The ability to access loans will help them increase production and provide advanced health solutions to address COVID-19 along with other health emergencies, especially across the vulnerable communities of India from Tier 2 and 3 cities.
What is SAMRIDH?
SAMRIDH, an initiative supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), leverages philanthropic capital and public sector resources, to offset barriers for commercial investments in small and medium health enterprises.
Development financing, by itself, is insufficient to address the diversity and scale of healthcare challenges in India. However, through strategic partnerships, it can be leveraged to mitigate investor barriers in healthcare and unlock public and private capital flows for high impact solutions in the sector. Optimising this approach, SAMRIDH combines philanthropic and public funds with commercial capital, to mobilize more than $100 million to support healthcare enterprises. The programme uses a three-fold tactic to mobilise a capital pool from diverse partners.
This partnership with Axis Bank will enhance SAMRIDH’s efforts to scale market solutions and innovations in the healthcare value chain, supplementing the manufacturing and distribution of pharmaceuticals, facility expansion of public and private hospitals, nursing homes, small clinics, laboratories, and warehouses.
Speaking on the collaboration, USAID/ India Mission Director Veena Reddy said, “Private enterprise is a powerful force for lifting lives, strengthening communities, and accelerating sustainable development. Increasing access to affordable capital for small enterprises with solutions for greater reach will enable long-term impact. This new partnership between Axis Bank and SAMRIDH will further our joint efforts to provide innovative healthcare solutions to some of the most vulnerable people in India.”
“Our partnership with SAMRIDH will enable the Bank to extend the much-needed debt support to more entities that are working to strengthen India’s healthcare infrastructure, in order to deal with the third wave of the pandemic and any other emerging healthcare challenges,” said Subrat Mohanty, Group Executive, Axis Bank Business Group, Axis Bank.
