INDIA AND ROADMAP TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 3: ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES.

India is witnessing high rates of economic growth consistently in past few years and is emerging as a strong contender in the global economy, however despite an impressive economic growth India?s public healthcare system is mediocre and this is reflected in the fact that India still ranks 130 out of 188 countries on human development index (HDR 2015). The healthcare infrastructure including modernized hospitals and world-class healthcare facilities though has developed in the past few years but the benefits of expanding healthcare sector are highly skewed in favour of the richer sections of the society while the lower strata of the population which constitute the majority of the population have little or no access to good quality healthcare services. The prime objective of this paper is to trace historical trends of the key health indicators and review the impact of policy programmes like NHM, JSY etc. in reducing the mortality. Further, this study also focuses upon the burden of out-of-pocket expenditure on health incurred by the population belonging to different stratified groups based on their socioeconomic background despite launching free health services. The study incorporates the pace of progress made under Millennium Development Goals and recommends policies/initiatives and the challenges towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals in the future. The data source includes World Bank dataset, NSSO, SRS, NFHS, DLHS, CES, HMIS and other statistical reports. The data is tabulated and analyzed using statistical packages and graphical tools. Spectrum software has been used for predictions. The results are expected to unveil that although the progress has been made over the years, but the pace has been slow and nearly stagnant and India needs to focus more on strengthening its health infrastructure and expand its human resource in health.