The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) has asked the government to move ahead with making universal healthcare a reality by restructuring the public health system.

With elections barely nine months away, the Congress is looking to shore up its image as the party committed to improving the aam aadmi's lot. Following popular schemes on rural employment, right to education and right to food, the ruling party is now focussing on health, which is a major cause of impoverishment.

India is among the countries with the lowest public spend on healthcare - about 1% of the GDP, compared with China's 2.9% and Thailand's 3.1%. Read More

Jyothi Shankaran

    Jyothi’s last role was as Senior Editor with the business news channel Bloomberg TV India. He also worked as News Editor at business-standard.com, the online version of the business newspaper Business Standard. Jyothi is a chemical engineer from the Regional Engineering College, Srinagar.