SAMRIDH Initiative

Sustainable Access to Markets and Resources for Innovative Delivery of Healthcare (SAMRIDH) initiative was announced by ‘Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) of NITI Aayog in association with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

SAMRIDH Initiative

• This new partnership will improve access to quality and affordable healthcare for vulnerable populations across tier-2 and tier-3 cities, as well as rural and tribal regions.
• USAID, IPE Global, and stakeholders from Indian government, private sector and academia developed the innovative SAMRIDH blended finance facility in 2020, for combining philanthropic and public funds with commercial capital, in a bid to create and rapidly scale market-based health solutions.
• This partnership will enhance SAMRIDH’s efforts for reaching vulnerable populations and leveraging expertise of AIM in innovation and entrepreneurship.
• AIM and SAMRIDH will leverage public sector resources and philanthropic capital for offsetting barriers for commercial investments across small and medium health enterprises for investing in and scale healthcare solutions.

Objectives

• Bridge supply-side gaps in healthcare facilities to respond to health emergencies in the immediate, medium, and long term.
• Accelerate scale-up and adoption of innovative and market-based health solutions.
• Mobilize resources to support high impact health solutions and build sustainable healthcare systems.
• Promote local and comprehensive solutions at the community and facility level for vulnerable populations.

Significance

• AIM and SAMRIDH will leverage philanthropic capital, and public sector resources to offset barriers for commercial investments in small and medium health enterprises to invest in and scale healthcare solutions.
• The new partnership announced will enhance SAMRIDH’s efforts to reach vulnerable populations, leveraging AIM’s expertise in innovation and entrepreneurship.

How is it different from the SAMRIDH Programme?

• The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) launched the ‘Start-up Accelerators of MeitY for Product Innovation, Development and growth (SAMRIDH)’ programme in August 2021.
• It was launched to create a conducive platform to Indian Software Product start-ups to enhance their products and secure investments for scaling their business.