Prakash Kumar

How to gain and build Digital Trust is particularly important for the success of any Health IT solutions? For the success of any digitally enabled health service improvement program the most significant aspect is to gain trust of all stakeholders. The success of the program will be in question if there is lack of commitment of involved stakeholders, it will reduce its outcome and defeat the very purpose of its implementation. There is ample evidence which suggests that digitization in any field or domain has improved quality of living and saved time in completing day to day tasks of common citizens across the country. It has become part of life. However, it has also instilled fear among citizens due to lack of security, safety and reducing trust in digital applications. One can see increasing trust gap in all domains of life but lack of trust in digital application will decrease its fast adoption and in delivering intended benefits to improve system and governance. Large scale data bre...

  Digitally enabled health care is a win-win situation for everyone Patients: Registration, appointment, availability of services on a finger click Diagnosis, laboratory, radiology report/data and its tracking, monitoring, storage, use and sharing SMS/Email alerts, reminders on status, information, and related activity. Online payment, expenditure tracking and payment of incentives /subsidies Specific disease related communication /information and follow up. Support group (patients to patients) Service feedback by patients/public Information sharing and seeking specific information Time saving   Healthcare givers: Easy identification/registration of patients through ABHA No. Availability of patient’s health records Easy management of prescription Laboratory and radiology information management and sharing of results Telemedicine diagnosis, monitoring Referral management Assisted diagnosis support system, treatment protocols, case studies etc. Better communication on roster, ro...

My Travel Diary of East Africa: An adventure of a life time through some of the breathtaking landscapes, culture and people in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zanzibar I have been wanting to take an adventurous trip to Africa for several years, and I had planned to travel by road from Cairo to Cape Town, crossing 13 countries in 49 days. My plan was to fly to Cairo from Delhi, then drive through Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, and then fly back to Delhi from Cape Town. I was planning to depart in April 2020, but I had to modify my plans to leave out Egypt and Sudan and fly to Addis Ababa instead, and return from Cape Town to Delhi. I started preparing for the trip and got a yellow fever vaccination on January 20, but then the COVID-19 pandemic happened and all my plans were put on hold. The plan was, A) Addis Ababa to Uganda via Omo valley, Marsabit, Nandi hills, Eldoret, Kampala (2000 km) Kampal...

Some of my random observations/thoughts while traveling Tanzania in July 2022. I travelled far and wide mostly by public transportation, meeting people, talking to them, observing them and seeing the vast possibilities of Tanzania. I have not followed any order intentionally to keep it as it is since it was part of my communication with a Tanzanian friend who wanted to hear my experience. I may be wrong in certain observation but it is completely educational without any wrong motive. Given an opportunity I will return to Tanzania again to complete my tour of Mbeya in South and Mwanza on Lake Victoria which I was not able to do this time. I entered Tanzania from Rwanda through Rusumo border and travelled up to Dar es salaam then Zanzibar and back to Dar. And in return to Moshi, Arusha, Engaruka, Karatu, Ngorongoro conservation area and entered Kenya through Namanga border. I found Tanzania friendly and receptive. There was openness in talk. My entry to Rusumo, Tanzania was smooth. The ...

How to identify areas or activity to give back to community ? Yes we are thinking right. Successful people in their respective field having desire to contribute or give back to society or their community world over are finding it hard to identify suitable area or activity to contribute for long term beneficial impact to community. Thai is impactful giving ? In my opinion it happens because most of us at this age have more or less construed a certain view of the society /community and try to find a solution based on our experience. It becomes a top down approach similar to what is happening everywhere in the country be it govt or private sector . Some time it succeed. But the best way in my opinion is to go back to the community members men, women, boys ,girls , children etc who are in our minds /thoughts and who needed the support. The real needy members of the community. We need to reach out to our community members residing in rural areas, peri-urban areas and in cities . We nee...

 Value buying, value education, value opinion ......likewise value should be given while aging and may be called as value aging. One has to value something before going for it or to say investing in value proposition. But it is just opposite in case of aging , our thinking of aging is of diminishing, decline , loss, decreased strength,decreased income,retirement,decreased responsibility, decreased mental activity etc which is not true from any angle.    As we age the aging also opens several new opportunities to contribute in many spheres, opportunity to live longer with quality life,thrive longer, and to be valued part of community as mentor. One has to start investing in aging early on to get the full benefit while aging gracefully. And the best investment is in health literacy, stress free living, physical mobility, listening to others and oneself and contributing to society and developing understanding with young generation. 

 After a very long time one can have a budget which is more on substance rather than rhetoric. This budget is truly an exercise to keep India going after a prolonged 2 year hardship caused by Corona. The thrust is building India and keeping the momentum of pre covid to make India 5 trillion economy by 2025. First time after independence the focus is on  growth rather than keeping the fiscal deficit within some theoretical benchmark. In fact for developing countries like India the focus should be always on growth rather than keeping fiscal deficit under control. However it is important keep the focus on capital and infra building which also creates job opportunities. 

Since last few years Grant Funding for climate and broader environment areas is decreasing and in all probability post COVID it will be further decreased.  In 2020 US Grant for this area was in % terms as below, 1.Air, land and water conservation :19  2. Environment education,justice and resource rights :19  3. Sustainable Fishing and agriculture : 16 4.Energy resources and access :18 5.Forestry :1 6. CLIMATE CHANGE: 23 7. Waste management :4  To Restrict warming to 1.5 degree c requires major GHG reductions by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. This requires trillions of dollar of capital spending and more funding to improve resilience against physical hazards. Apart from this lot of funding is required for developing scalable low carbon technologies such as  -Renewables Solar/Wind  -Green Hydrogen -Carbon capture , utilization and storage -Natural Climate solutions (NCS) such as reforestation to achieve 1/3rd reductions  -Battery-electric vehicles ...