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172 Economic Survey 2020-21 Volume 1

Figure 22: Number of esanjeevani consultations (November 2019 to November 2020)

Source: PIB Delhi 2020.
Figure 23: Correlation between eSanjeevani consultations
reported and Internet penetration in the state

5.36 Figure 23 shows that the number of telemedicine consultations correlates strongly with
the Internet penetration in a state. Thus, the success of telemedicine critically hinges on having
decent level of health infrastructure and Internet connectivity nationwide. Specifically, investing
in Internet access, can lead to greater uptake of telemedicine, which in turn can greatly help
reduce geographic disparities in healthcare access and utilization.

CONCLUsIONs aNd POLICy sUGGestIONs

5.37 The recent COvID-19 pandemic has emphasised the importance of healthcare, whereby
a healthcare crisis transformed into an economic and social crisis. Considering the same and in
striving to achieve the SDG target of Universal Healthcare Coverage, India must take steps to
improve healthcare accessibility and affordability in the country. Yet, healthcare policy must
not become beholden to “saliency bias”, where policy over-weights a recent phenomenon that
may represent a six-sigma event. This is especially pertinent given the fact that countries with