Biz leaders, Policy makers, academics address Oxford India Business Forum in New Delhi on Health, Environment

The objective of the forum was to provide a platform for global business leaders, academics, policy-makers and sector-specialists to debate some of the most pertinent issues affecting business, economic and social growth in this part of the world this year, the focus was on health and the environment.

The fourth Oxford India Business Forum was started with the opening comments from Mr. S. Ramadorai, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., who was also the Founding Sponsor of the event.

The forum was divided into two sessions. The first session was conducted on the theme The state of public health in India, challenges for strengthening the infrastructure of the public health, vision for the future of public health institutions. During the session, the panel of speakers made introductory addresses on the topic followed by a panel discussion. The discussion was moderated by Prof. Colin Mayer, Peter Moores Dean of the Said Business School and Peter Moores professor of Management Studies. Other eminent speakers invited to address the session were Dr. Jishnu Das, Senior Economist, Development Research Group (Human development and Public Services Team), World Bank; Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, MD, DM, MSc, FAMS, President, Public Health Foundation of India; and Dr. Naresh Kumar Trehan, Chairman, Global Health Private Limited.

While commenting on Oxfords participation in addressing health and environmental issues, Prof. Colin Mayer Said, Oxford is devoting particular attention to the role that the private sector will play in addressing environmental questions and the extent to which it will help to solve rather than exacerbate environmental problems. The theme of the boundaries between the state and the private sector is equally relevant to the health sector. Governments around the world have been experimenting with new models of health-care delivery.

Carrying forward the session, Dr. Jishnu Das, Senior Economist, said, The foremost reason of the poor health care facilities in India is the lack of awareness for health among people living below the poverty line. These people can not differentiate between the proper and inadequate heath-care facilities. Moreover, the majority of our population is living in the village regions or rural areas so the people do not have access to better health-care institutions and good doctors. More and more competent doctors are running behind the hefty pay packages and joining private hospitals and the poor people can not afford to go there.

While illustrating the critical aspects of health-care system in India, Prof. K. Srinath Reddy said, We have some states in India with good quality of health-care facilities and some with inadequate facilities, so people quite often go to cities or urban areas if they fall critically sick. There is a significant shortage of doctors in the rural areas because qualified doctors do not want to get into public sector jobs. And so far, governments have not paid attention towards improving health-care facilities in the rural areas.

India has the capacity to be on the top in providing proper health-care facilities to its people. The trends seem to be changing as we have noticed that in last few years there have emerged several multi-specialty hospitals which have attracted foreign nationals also. They come to India because of the low cost of treatment, said Dr. Naresh Kumar Trehan, Chairman, Global Health.

The second session addressed the theme The state of the environment in India, challenges for dealing with environmental degradation and water problems, vision for the future of Indias environment. The session was moderated by The Right Hon The Lord Patten of Barnes. Other key-note speakers at the session were Prof. steve Rayner, Director, Institute for Science, Innovation & Society, Said Business School; Dr. Kirit S. Parikh, Member of the Planning Commission, Govt of India; and Mr. Pavan Sukhdev, Stydy Leader, TEEB & Project Leader, Green Economy, UNEP and Chairman, Global Markets Centre Mumbai, Deutsche Bank.

Addressing the session, Lord Patten said, The developing countries of the world are suffering more from the global warming than the developed countries. But this should not be the concern for any particular country rather the whole world should come up with a resilient resolution to tackle the menace. We must understand that the environmental issues like global warming need to be addressed and reviewed frequently as there has been constant environmental degradation. The environmental issues are a bigger threat for us than the terrorism. Governments around the world must pay attention toward this sever crisis otherwise it will be too late, he concluded.