Investment in health is central to India’s journey toward a wealthy nation. About the authors Key contacts Parijat Ghoshis the head of Bain & Company’s Asia-Pacific Healthcare & LifeSciences practice. He has led multiple revenue, customer, digital, and costtransformation initiatives across the healthcare ecosystem. Parijat Ghosh in New Delhi (parijat.ghosh@bain.com) Siddhartha Bhattacharya in New Delhi (siddhartha.bhattacharya@nathealth.co.in) Siddhartha Bhattacharyais secretary general of NATHEALTH, with more than 25years in healthcare and tech across India and the US, leading health systemtransformations. Bhavini Malhotra in New Delhi (bhavini.malhotra@bain.com) Bhavini Malhotrais a partner in Bain & Company’s Healthcare & Life Sciencespractice. She has led multiple strategy, due diligence, and go-to-markettransformation initiatives across Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology and Buyout Fund. Acknowledgments For media queries: The authors deeply thankPayal Narayan(Manager),Apoorva Mishra(ProjectLead),Shivam Singh(Associate),Sarthak Jhalani(Analyst), andAyushGalyan(Analyst) for their in-depth research, analytical rigor, and notablecontributions to the development of key insights that have gone into this report. Sitara Achreja (sitara.achreja@bain.com) Shelza Khan (shelza.khan@bain.com) Copyright @ 2026 Bain & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Executive summary: Health as a catalyst for economic growth India’s HALE has already increased from approximately 50 to 61 years since1990. Achieving an additional 10-year gain—to a HALE of 70 by 2047—couldunlock a fivefold expansion in GDP per capita, increasing it from approximately$2,800 to $14,100. This jump could contribute 70% of the Viksit Bharat aspirationof reaching $18,000 to $20,000 GDP per capita. Population health is a foundational enabler of India’s 2047 growth ambition.To become a $30–$40 trillion economy by 2047, India must fully harness itsdemographic dividend (2019–53). It must also treat population health as a coreinput to productivity, human capital formation, and sustained economic growth—not just as a social imperative. Global evidence on this issue is consistent:Healthier countries are structurally wealthier, and sustained investment in healthis closely associated with long-term prosperity. The next step-change requires higher investment and integrated execution.While the National Health Policy 2017 catalyzed progress across life expectancy,immunization, sanitation, and select disease-control outcomes, critical targets onmortality, non-communicable disease outcomes, financing, infrastructure, andsystem integration remain unmet. Reaching the next frontier will require doublinghealth investment from approximately 3%–4% of GDP to 6%–7%, in line withglobal peers. In addition, India must institutionalize and integrate governancemodels. Financing, service delivery, workforce development, digital infrastructure,procurement, and performance management should align under a singleaccountable framework Despite meaningful progress, disease burden remains a material economicconstraint.Over the past decades, India has implemented multiple central- andstate-level reforms that have strengthened financial protection, expanded systemcapacity, and improved select population health outcomes. Yet a persistently highdisease burden continues to suppress workforce participation and productivity,resulting in a $0.8–$1.0 trillion annual opportunity cost. Healthy lifespan gains can accelerate income growth.Longitudinal analysesacross roughly 190 countries show a clear inflection point: Once health-adjustedlife expectancy (HALE) exceeds 57 years, GDP per capita growth acceleratesmaterially—with each additional year of HALE yielding approximately 7.5% higherGDP per capita. Countries that achieved 10-year HALE gains or more over thepast three decades experienced roughly two times higher GDP per capita growththan peers with more modest improvements. China, South Korea, and Poland allexhibited this trajectory. Scaling prevention, infrastructure, and digital health will realize ViksitBharat.Expanding prevention-embedded universal health coverage, buildinginfrastructure and workforce capacity at pace, accelerating digital health adoption,and using policy levers to shift behaviors toward healthier living will be central toachieving India’s ambitions. Elevating health from a social priority to a coreeconomic strategy is critical for India to realize its Viksit Bharat vision by 2047. Viksit Bharat aims to harness a multidecadal demographic dividend to achievetwin objectives of a $30–$40 trillion economy and heathy life expectancy of70+ years India 2047 ambition Viksit Bharat by 2047 onone sideis about becoming a $30 trillioneconomy,and thesecondimperative relating to healthcaresectoris to raise life expectancyfrom the current 71 years to 85years andhealthy life expectancyfrom 60 years to 70 –75 years. These are thebenchmarks of thedeveloped nations,and that isw