INSEAD recently hosted a conference in Paris on the future of the healthcare industry. They had a number of interesting speakers, including Harpal Singh of Fortis Healthcare. Fortis is a leading provider of hospitals in India, and currently the fastest growing. Their investor presentation provides a look into the future of the business of healthcare (in my opinion). Every single indicator of financial performance is up, including a 477% increase in net profit over last year Q2. The cost effectiveness of performing health procedures in India has long been acknowledged through the growth in medical tourism. But the rapid pace of growth in domestic healthcare is most surprising. The INSEAD article quotes Singh:
“The total Indian market is currently estimated in healthcare delivery at about 38 billion dollars,” he says. “It is supposed to grow to a 300-billion-dollar market by 2020.” Indeed, with a population of some 1.2 billion people and an average household savings rate of over 30 per cent, India represents a formidable market opportunity. According to government statistics, healthcare is the single largest sector of spending in the Indian economy, and the country’s largest employer.