A future where ‘social’ is taken for granted

Monday, February 29, 2016

While many companies on India’s stock market struggled amid market turmoil in recent weeks, one hospital chain has outstripped all expectations since being listed in January. On average, stocks in India have plunged roughly 10 percent since the beginning of the year, but Narayana Hrudayalaya shares have been trading at more than 10 percent higher than its public offering price.

The hospital chain was founded in 2000 by Devi Shetty, a former personal physician to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mother Teresa. Narayana has managed to cut the cost of heart transplant operations to roughly 3 percent of that in the U.S., opening up affordable healthcare to millions of the country’s poor.

The type of business is typically referred to as a “social enterprise.” In a country where a significant proportion of people live in poverty, Shetty’s vision was to bring the cost of surgery to within the reach of every citizen. The number of cardiac operations conducted in his hospitals now stands at 14,000 annually.

Source: Nikkei Asian Review (link opens in a new window)

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Health Care