Photograph sourced from freestocks.org
An attractive opportunity develops: About a decade ago, during an evening visit to the neighbourhood garden with her friends, my mother heard about a Vitamin E supplement that improved the quality of one’s skin and hair. One of the elderly ladies in the group had been prescribed the tablet by her doctor. My mother and all the other ladies in that group ended up checking with their doctors and then taking the Vitamin E supplement too.
Photograph by Katherine Hanlon
Yoga started in India, was exported to the West, became wildly popular there, and is now seeing a resurgence in interest in India. Ayurveda, on the other hand, has not become anywhere near as widely accepted in the West as yoga has. Passion, patriotism and antipathy to big pharma make an objective discussion on alternative remedies like Ayurveda somewhat difficult. What is tougher still is focussing the discussion on “genuine” Ayurveda and ignoring the myriad products that simply claim to be Ayurvedic.
Healthcare is one of the largest sectors in the Indian economy both in terms of employment and revenues, and paradoxically, one of the greatest challenges facing our nation. A large number of minds from the IITB community are engaged in grappling with key Healthcare issues in various roles – as founders of NGOs that offer primary healthcare, as scientists researching drug discovery, as technologists and innovators solving problems related to delivery and devices, as incubators supporting and guiding start-ups, and as investors funding small firms, etc. In this issue of Fundamatics, we bring you some of their stories, as well as articles exploring different aspects of Healthcare.
Being son of a doctor, I saw healthcare from very close quarters but the fact that it kept my father so busy, I chose the easy way out, become an engineer! After finishing 4 eventful years at IIT, the only goal for me was to land up in a good job. While at IIT, as creativity flows, I did come up with an idea for a non-stop transportation system, and shared that with my friends and they couldn’t stop making fun of me for next 3 days. That self-consciousness and fear was enough for me to not pursue on the idea. 10 years later when I sent a link showing a prototype and a patent on the same idea, guess what my friends did, laughed at me again! This time for me not having the conviction to pursue my idea. I believe they were right.