Healthcare services: Follow one offering through the chain
Hospitals, clinics, laboratories and pharmacies that diagnose, treat and care for patients
Follow one offering through the chain
A cataract operation at Aravind, Madurai
Follow one cataract patient from a lens factory in Madurai to a village camp, a busy theatre and restored sight.
A lens made down the road
US$ 3basic Aurolab lens price, 2022The new lens in the eye comes from Aurolab, the manufacturer Aravind set up in Madurai in 1992. An imported intraocular lens then cost over US$ 100; Aurolab's first PMMA lens came in under US$ 10, and by 2022 it sold to end users for about US$ 3. By then it had made more than 20 million lenses for 140 countries.1
Constraint Lenses and sutures are regulated medical devices needing optical-grade polymer and sterile packing; phaco machines and microscopes come mainly from a few foreign makers. PMMA Acrylics (PMMA)PA Nylon (PA6, PA66)PP PolypropyleneMedical devicesPlastic and rubber productsTraining surgeons for high volume
577people trained by Aravind, 2024-25Surgeons are the scarce input, so Aravind trains its own. In 2024-25 it took 577 candidates through clinical and management courses, including 20 MS ophthalmology and 27 DNB students and dozens of fellows in cataract, retina and glaucoma. Trained ophthalmic assistants do the checks before and after surgery, so each surgeon spends theatre time operating.2
Constraint An MBBS of five and a half years plus a three-year MS means about nine years per ophthalmologist, so capacity grows slowly. Rgt Reagents and high-purity lab chemicalsBld Energy in buildingsEducation and researchVision centres linked by video
117Aravind vision centres, 2024-25Many patients never travel to the city first. Aravind runs 117 rural vision centres where a technician examines the eye and an ophthalmologist at the base hospital reviews the case over a video link and electronic record. In 2024-25 these centres handled about 10.2 lakh new and review visits, sending those who need surgery on to hospital.2
Constraint Depends on reliable rural broadband and power; a dropped link means the patient waits for another day or travels to the base hospital. Si SiliconCu CopperDC Data centresSoftware and IT servicesTelecommunicationsWho pays for the new lens
98 lakhcataract operations in India, 2024-25Cataract surgery in India is paid for in three ways. The national blindness programme funded more than 98 lakh operations in 2024-25, up from 90.3 lakh a year earlier. The public insurance scheme AB-PMJAY covers poorer families at listed hospitals. Everyone else pays the hospital directly, sometimes helped by private health insurance.3,4
Constraint Public tariffs are fixed and payments can be slow, and households still paid 43.4% of all Indian health spending out of pocket in 2022-23. Finance: banking, insurance, marketsPublic administration, defence and securityScreening camps find the patients
66.2%of blindness over 50 from cataractDiagnosis often starts in a village. In 2024-25 Aravind ran 2,078 comprehensive eye camps that examined about 3.9 lakh people, plus diabetic retinopathy, school and refraction camps. Those found with cataract are measured for lens power and taken by bus to a base hospital. Cataract caused 66.2% of blindness among Indians aged 50 and over in the 2015-19 national survey.2,5
Constraint Camp numbers depend on sponsors, buses and trained screeners, and the biometry instruments that calculate lens power are costly precision optics. Rgt Reagents and high-purity lab chemicalsOil Crude oilICV Combustion road vehiclesMedical devicesTransport and logisticsHalf the operations free or subsidised
4.5 lakhAravind cataract operations, 2024-25At the hospital, surgeons work in a tight sequence, with one patient prepared while another is on the table. Aravind's 14 hospitals performed about 4.5 lakh cataract operations among 7.3 lakh surgeries, lasers and injections in 2024-25. About half of all surgeries were free or subsidised, carried by fees from patients who chose paying wards.2
Constraint Theatres need sterile water, steam and uninterrupted power; one failed autoclave or generator can halt a whole day's list of operations. H₂O WaterIPA IsopropanolO2 OxygenBlr Boilers, furnaces and stovesICE Internal combustion engines and gensetsPharmaceuticalsMedical devicesReal estateWhat the chain shows
The scarce input is surgical skill, not material: a US$ 3 lens made in Madurai and well-drilled teams let India do nearly a crore cataract operations a year.
Sources
- Aurolab: India's Revolution in Affordable Eye Care American Academy of Ophthalmology (YO Info), 2022
- Activity Report 2024-2025 Aravind Eye Care System, 2025
- Over 98 lakh cataract surgeries performed in FY25, highest in last 5 years: Minister (Rajya Sabha reply) THIP Media, 2025
- National Health Accounts Estimates for India 2022-23 National Health Systems Resource Centre, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 2026
- Cataract top cause of blindness in India, finds survey (National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey 2015-19) Down To Earth, 2019