Grass root innovations in healthcare sector (Prashant and Rohan)

The importance of healthcare can be gauged from the fact in US, healthcare sector is the third largest sector and accounts for as much as 12% of the weightage in S&P 500. On one hand there are economies like that of the US and Western Europe which are worried about the ageing population and the increased healthcare costs associated with that, and at the same time, there are emerging and less developed economies in Asia, Africa and South America which are finding it hard to provide basic health care services to their entire population. These two scenarios depict two extremes regarding health care services and there penetration but nonetheless the importance of health care cannot be denied.
In the project we intend to look into grass root innovations e.g. those which derive less from high end technology and can serve the community cheaply. With the same context in mind, we will cite some examples both from India and from across the world. And at last we will evaluate the impact of these innovations and try to determine if these innovations will lead the way for even more universal innovations in future.