There is a huge scope for India to improve medical treatment by taking advantage of technical developments such as AI and data analytics, former Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya said on Monday. “With AI (artificial intelligence), data analytics and all the technology there, treatments can perhaps be done better (in India) as we go forward,” Panagariya, Professor of Indian Political Economy at the Columbia University, said at US-India Strategic Partnership Forum here. By taking advantage of the technological changes such as AI and data analytics, India can bring good treatments almost anywhere in the country, he added. On the pricing issue in the medical industry, he said clearly this is being recognised in the trade agreements as well, citing that in some visible cases, prices have been negotiated between the companies (exporting and importing). Panagariya said India’s health sector is still very much evolving and very informal as it is still largely dominated by the private sector and government’s role largely had been into setting up medical colleges.

(Economic Times)