‘Delhi also most health focused’

New Delhi: Delhi, Puducherry, and Meghalaya have “consistently focussed” on health expenditure between 2001 and 2017, while states like Madhya Pradesh and Bihar “have not spent much” on health during that period, a research study by an industry body has claimed.

“The health expenditure of Delhi as a percentage of aggregate expenditure increased significantly to 9.6 per cent (average during 2009-2017) from 7.1 per cent (average during 2001-2008) with the improvement of 2.5 percentage points,” according to the study.  

In July 2015, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had asserted that education and healthcare were Delhi government’s topmost priority, and the expenditure in the two sectors was an investment.  

The PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry has based its findings on a research analysis of the expenditure done by various states during two different periods — 2001-2008 and 2009-2017.

The study also said that the expenditure on health in Puducherry as percentage of aggregate expenditure “increased significantly” to 7.8 per cent (average during 2009-2017) from 7.0 per cent  (average during 2001-2008), with improvement of 0.8 percentage points, while the corresponding figures for Meghalaya were 6.2 per cent and 5.6 per cent resp-ectively. Among the 31 sta-tes and Union territories, expenditures by Gujarat, Telangana, Nagaland, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh were also analysed.