Centrally purchasing drugs with a robust IT system in place gives purchasing power to drive down costs. Enforcing quality generic drug usage within the system weeds out corruption and unholy nexus between prescriber and manufacturer/supplier. Local empowerment and ownership makes the PoC-point of Care autonomous. Local manpower have sense of ownership, which anyway is high in rural settings. Urban living unfortunately forces strangers to live side by side. Participatory leadership with everyone clearly seeing the cathedral that is getting built means there is pride in the work done. Banavaram [ http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/a-model-that-delivers/article4477096.ece ] and Nandivaram [ http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/health-centre-near-chennai-achieves-over-100-rise-in-births/article5437244.ece] are examples of such work.
Tamil values system put in place in ancient times, effectively reinforced (by the likes of Tiruvalluvar) at frequent intervals has given the Tamil a unique rigmarole of living a disciplined life. Modern distractions do swing aam aadmi away to frivolous pursuits such as fast food, malls and never ending wants to keep the market based economy humming but the values are there, if one wants to uncover. I believe in the uniquely Indian-Hindu concept of life in 4 stages - balya, brahmachari, grihastha and sanyasa. If man lives a 100 years 12, 25, 50, 100 are the milestones for which one has to prepare in every stage. Notice how the periods double but the thing that caught my eye was that you should renounce worldly living by 50 and spend half of your life for Society. True wisdom emanates from one who has no want...Buddha, Mahavira, Jesus, Gandhi are all examples of this. This was practiced by all in ancient times, even by the Great Emperor Chandargupta Maurya, Emperor Ashoka's grandfather. He renounced his throne to come and live in Sravanabelagola (in Karnataka today) where a hill is named Chandragiri after him. How much discipline it must have taken for one to give up an Emperor's throne to live the life of a mendicant?
