Articles by Biju Mohandas

Editor’s note: New bloggers Shaila Parikh and Biju Mohandas work for Acumen Fund, based out of Hyderabad. Shaila is a Summer Associate and a Master of International Affairs candidate at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Biju is Acumen Fund's India Business Manager. Before joining Acumen Fund, he served for five years in the Indian Army's Medical and Dental Corps. Later, Biju completed his Post Graduate Program in Management with a dual major in analytical finance and strategic marketing from the Indian School of Business.

By Shaila Parikh and Biju Mohandas

In the middle of June, Acumen investee LifeSpring opened its second low-cost maternity hospital in a peri-urban area near Hyderabad. They plan to have six hospitals opened by the end of 2008, and by the time this post goes live, they will have launched their third hospital in Nellore, a small town in southern Andhra Pradesh.

As LifeSpring and other Acumen Fund investees slowly and steadily gain scale, we have started asking broader questions about healthcare for the low-income market. Mainly, we want to understand the major gaps and bottlenecks to providing healthcare to the low-income market in India and how these issues can be overcome. The India office is presently working on a status report of the healthcare sector in which we are trying to understand the challenges of the industry for our target market. What follows is a brief summary of our understanding thus far. Your feedback through questions, comments, nudges, pointers and criticism are appreciated.