'Namo-Care' to turn India into largest pharma manufacturer in world: Govt

New Delhi: Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers Ananth Kumar on Thursday said that Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme, popularly christened as 'Namo-Care', has the potential to turn India into the largest pharma manufacturer of the world in three years.

While inaugurating the 3rd edition of India Pharma 2018 in Bengaluru, Kumar said that Ayushman Bharat would lay down an ambitious framework for universal health coverage by giving assured affordable and quality health cover of Rs 5 lakh per annum to about 50 crore poorest of people in the country.

The government would start rolling out the ambitious health insurance cover in the next three months with the same speed and efficiency as highly successful initiatives like Mudra yojana, Ujjwala yojana, UjalaYojana, etc, the minister said.

With this major health reform', the Centre expects dollar 65 billion pharma and dollar 12 billion medical devices industry to double in next five years, the minister said.