Numbers are an obsession with Dr Shetty. He mulls over them, ruminating over their hidden potential, calculating the myriad possibilities for leveraging their strength. How do you provide quality healthcare to 1.2 billion people when the basic infrastructure is missing, the skilled manpower is woefully inadequate and costs are spiralling?
Dr Shetty, sometimes more dapper in suspenders and tie, a style that he picked up during his stint at Guy's Hospital in London, is turning serial entrepreneur.
Innovation is the solution, according to the man who has come up with some remarkable schemes to bridge the health deficit in the country.
Five years ago he designed Yeshasvini, a cut-rate insurance scheme for farmers in his home state, proving for the first time that one could, with some government backing, run a health insurance scheme for as little as Rs 10 a month per person.
Last year, he was quick to spot the huge potential in a small head of expenditure in the West Bengal government's education budget and turn it into a healthcare bonanza for a couple of million people outside the pale of insurance.
Image: Narayana Hrudayalaya hospital. | Photograph: Narayana Hrudayalaya Website
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