Nishit Vadhavkar's View on Healthcare Sector

One of the niche and overlooked sectors is that of Healthcare. India is now going through a consumption and IT driven boom.India has become the back office of the world. Thousands of Indian are leading an affluent lifestyle which only a few years ago, they could only dream of.

Life styles have become more sedentary and stress levels ahve increased dramatcially. The stress levels have are directly proportional to the salray increases.People now have the money to spend but along with that also the lifestyle diseases to boot. Diabetes and heart attacks are now hitting peole in their 30s a phenomenon which was unheard of until even a few years back.

The demographics suggest that the Indian population which has a large work force in the 25-35 years age group will peak around 2015 and then become greying.As has happened in the 1960s in the USA, the baby boomer generation has the money in hand and are willing to pay the premium for better healthcare services.I strongly feel healthcare is the sector to watch in the future.

There are very few listed companies in this space.1 of them is Apollo Hospitals. Now Apollo has a chain of hospitals in major cities and they have started Apollo pharmacies. Better supply chain efficiencies and bargaining power can make them a force to reckon with. They have also started the Apollo clinics where diagnostics services are provided. I have not studied this stock in detail but with a 10 year holding horizon a good stock to buy and forget.

Fortis healthcare has filed the red herring draft prospectus with SEBI. At the right price this could be a good buy, given that the promoters are the Ranbaxy group.