Healthcare is an important sector in any country. In India, healthcare is the responsibility of individual states and needs considerable attention. Raising the level of nutrition amongst the people, improvement in the public health, tackling health problems, proper vaccination etc are some of the health concerns that the administration needs to take care of. There is a National Health Policy too which is endorsed by Parliament. However critics say that this policy fails to achieve its stated goals. Health problems such as failure to integrate health services with wider economic and social development, the lack of nutritional support and sanitation, and the poor participatory involvement at the local level still persist.

The indian government has been setting up goals and strategies to improve healthcare through its five year plans. The governmnet has also been sponsoring health programs such as the polio eradication project which has been quite successful in the country. The Central Council of Health and Family Welfare is the centre state givernment consultation for healthcare in India. It is the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare which provides administrative and technical services for the healthcare segment and also manages medical education.

The fifth and sixth five-year plans included special programs that paid attention to health of the rural population. Supplemental nutrition programs and increased supply of safe drinking water were the priorities of the plan. More than twenty billion rupees are being alloctaed got the health care segment through the five year plans.

Indian health care policies have not fully succeeded to adapt health-serving measures to issues of wider socio-economic developments. Healthcare in India is constantly plagued by the menace of poverty, illiteracy, high population growth rate and corruption, which in turn leads to poor sanitation, exploitation, lack of nutritional awareness and poor local participation.

However, health care segment is improving in India and government as well as private entities is offering their best. More and more hospitals in India are starting up. Health care tourism is coming up in a big way. India is also known for its yoga and other ayurveda treatments. Indian yoga has swept the western world off its feet. Yoga in India is a three-fold path for total human development - physical, mental and spiritual. Its purpose is to bring man to his highest state development on all planes. Regular practice of yoga ensures perfect health and fitness to an individual.

The field of health insurance in India is still in its infancy. There are almost no social health insurance services provided by the government and state. For health insurance needs, an Indian has to take policies from government owned or private insurance companies. A premium is paid by the individual for these at regular intervals. In return the insurer pays for his medical costs in case of a sickness or an accident. This is only for the diseases covered by the policy.