The Indian Health Kiosk Venture was founded in 2009 by professor Dhrubes Biswas from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India, together with the Society of Social Entrepreneurs at IIT Kharagpur. The venture has been developed further in co-creation with the Global Venture Lab (www.gvl3.com), a a university-based business creation platform with founders from India, Finland and USA. This blog tells about Indian Health Kiosk from the point of view of Global Venture Lab Finland.
WHAT IT IS IT ALL ABOUT?
Health Kiosk aims to bring health services and insurance to the rural population in India. The kiosks provide health awareness, diagnostics and basic health care and are run by local entrepreneurs – trained by the Society of Social Entrepreneurs at IIT and connected with the local hospital. Currently there are 16 kiosks in operation in Eastern India (West Bengal), but the goal is to spread these small life saving stops in villages all across India.
The other goal of this venture is to set up channels for entrepreneurs and small businesses to use the kiosks as a test bed for innovative and sustainable products (diagnostic devices, communication technologies etc.) that will be used by the kiosks. This is a profitable situation for both sides – it offers whole new business opportunities and distribution channels for companies while assisting the whole model in scaling up.
