“MEDIPRENEURSHIP”: New Age Healthcare Entrepreneurship – Prospects and Challenges in Indian Perspective

Abstract

Purpose: The Purpose of this paper is to put light on the options available in India for Healthcare Entrepreneurship; an emerging trend in form of MEDIPRENEURSHIP and the opportunities and challenges for the medipreneurial ventures in India. Background: Healthcare services in India has a long history of primitive healthcare services starting from around 6th century BC. Continuing this tradition India is seeing a growth in the Healthcare industry today providing wide array of services like Medical tourism; Home based healthcare and Medical Consultation services. The pervasive growth of healthcare entrepreneurship aka MEDIPRENEURSHIP (we are introducing this term for the first time in this paper) has different factors which can serve either as a prospect or as a challenge for these Medipreneurs. This paper aims to converse these factors and its consequence in Indian context. Methodology: This paper is purely based on secondary qualitative data. Findings: The research reveals that with the mounting scope in Healthcare industry one can see spur of Medipreneurs in India. There are few factors like Internet and emergence of information technology and few governmental policies which are creating prospects for medipreneurial ventures; while there are also challenges like unorganized sector, lack of knowledge about this industry and fragmented customer segments and their diverse expectations, which should be tackled by the Medipreneurs to be flourishing in this industry. Significance: The research will significantly contribute to streamline the healthcare sector and to help the Medipreneurs grow in organized manner and also help government policy makers design policies for the growth of Indian Medipreneurs thus boosting the Indian economy.