Amazon Web Services wants to invest more in health and pharma market; here's why

While demand for cloud is increasing in Indian healthcare space akin to other sectors, tech giant Amazon Web Services (AWS) wants to increase investments in the Indian market. The “Digital India” wave spiralling after the launch of government’s National Digital Health Mission, also known as Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), seems to be key reason behind why AWS is showing a heightened interest in the burgeoning Indian tech market.

“India today is one of the largest and most exciting markets for technology companies to build and if you look at the potential for cloud, all the cloud penetration in India is still in single digits. The role of healthcare and health tech organizations is pivotal,” said Puneet Chandok, President, AWS India and South Asia.
 
“After the Covid-19 pandemic, digitisation of healthcare technology is set to increase, thanks for the government led ABDM. AWS is working with several healthcare organizations in India and startups like Dozee and practo. Several others are building innovative solutions in diagnostics, patient care, telemedicine and vaccinations. There's a lot happening in terms of cloud adoption in India,” Chandok added.

 
According to a recent report released by Bessemer Venture Partners, in 2022, 4.7 per cent of all global VC dollars were deployed in India, making up $25.7 billion, venture capital investors funded 2,367 Indian start-ups last year, 468 of which (20 per cent) are cloud or SaaS businesses. Further, start-ups in India adopt multi-product strategy earlier than their global counterparts. Indian SaaS companies are leveraging AI to help productise services. That means Indian builders are using the cloud to deliver services and LLMs to improve their quality and accuracy, the report said.

There are as many as 7,849 healthtech start-ups in India as on January 11, according to Tracxn, which gives an immense opportunity to AWS for investing.  “The Indian start-up ecosystem is the third largest in the world. India is also home to the third highest number of unicorns. At least 80,000 start-ups that are government registered and that number is just great,” pointed out Kumara Raghavan, Head, Start-ups at AWS India.  

 
“Start-ups across all stages are looking for cost optimisation solutions. The other requirement, we are increasingly seeing, is the startups want to focus on automation and want to have more managed services. So, that means, they are able to be far more technically efficient rather than having to manage several services on them. We have robust belief that startups in India have a huge opportunity and it is their moment to shine,” he noted.

AWS has also indicated that it will soon bring in specialist programs for Indian start-ups, focusing on preventive healthcare. Under the programs, the company will partner with big Venture Capital (VC) firms to help health start-ups. The company indicates a major movement in terms of preventive health start ups and it will provide mentorship all along the start up journey, right from the pre seed stage.
 
“Cloud has now become a certainty and businesses are now embracing the flexibility the scalability and the resiliency the cloud brings like never before. India is poised for tremendous growth. We are on our way to become the third largest economy in the world in the next decade and cloud is going to fuel this growth in a meaningful way. Therefore for us that AWS s it's crucial to invest in India where the demand for cloud is increasing rapidly,” Chandok explained.

AWS announced an increased investment of Rs 36,300 crore from a previously announced Rs 20,096 crore in 2020 in its second India region Hyderabad with a special focus on healthcare and Hyderabad Pharma city just three months ago on January 21st.

With the adoption of technologies, ranging from artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a fast digital transformation. There is a rising need of technology providers which can offer pharmaceutical companies with cloud computing services, big data analytics, and other digital solutions, helping them to improve their R&D processes, drug discovery, and manufacturing.  The number of pharmaceutical companies in India using technology platforms is countable, especially amongst the mid size companies. For instance, companies such as Dr Reddy’s and Pfizer are using the AWS platform. AWS, which provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and Application Programming Interface (API) to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered and pay-as-you-go basis has a huge opportunity.

“Cloud platforms have significantly altered the way businesses across sectors operate today. For Pharma companies, cloud platforms and other advanced technologies help streamline workloads and reduce costs. Going beyond storage, cloud computing addresses significant privacy, security, and compliance issues that the sector faces,” noted Debashish Roy, Director and Head - Digital Innovation, Pfizer.

The AWS is also betting on the Indian healthcare sector that offers a significant opportunity in terms of providing innovative solutions to potential clients for improved healthcare outcomes, reduced costs for patients and hospitals alike.

Indian Healthcare sector is a high potential market. It is expected to reach a size of $ 50 billion by 2025, according to the government.
 
AWS believes that Covid-19 accelerated digital transformation across public sector institutions by three to five years, and led to unprecedented levels of digital engagement with citizens in India. “Today citizens and residents expect the same world class technology from public sector organizations that they expect when they log onto Netflix, or when they go online and do their shopping.  This has prompted public sector organizations to transform how they deliver services to citizens The cloud has become the bedrock of digital innovation programs and mission mode projects of the Indian government,” pointed out Max Peterson, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector, AWS.
 
“Within the public sector, we have seen a considerable shift in the way the government organisations are thinking about and using cloud over the last few years in India. AWS has deeply invested in helping India to unlock its digital potential and continues to make significant investments in the nation and our Public Sector business,” added Peterson.

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