Why India-EU healthcare cooperation is more than just trade

The global order is undergoing a structural shift. Supply chains once optimised for efficiency are now being stress-tested by geopolitical rivalry, pandemics, demographic transitions, and technological disruption. Healthcare, long treated as a sectoral concern, has emerged as a strategic pillar of national and international resilience.

This shift is particularly visible in the evolving relationship between India and the European Union. As both sides work toward a Free Trade Agreement by 2026, healthcare must not be treated as a peripheral chapter. Instead, it should be recognised as a core strategic domain- one that goes well beyond tariffs, quotas, and market access. The central question is no longer how much countries trade, but how they cooperate. In healthcare, where systemic failure translates directly into human cost, this distinction is decisive.

Economic complementarity: Beyond classical trade logic

Traditional trade theory rests on comparative advantage and exchange. Yet healthcare cooperation demands a more integrated model- one based on shared capabilities rather than transactional trade. Europe faces an ageing population, workforce shortages, and escalating healthcare expenditure. India, by contrast, has a young demographic profile, rising healthcare demand, and expanding production capacity. This asymmetry is not a vulnerability; it is a strategic complement.

India’s pharmaceutical sector anchors global generic medicine supply, while Europe leads in advanced therapeutics, clinical research, and regulatory science. Aligned carefully, these strengths can support co-development ecosystems that improve affordability, accelerate innovation, and strengthen supply security on both sides.

History offers a cautionary lesson here. Systems built purely for cost optimisation- much like pre-pandemic global supply chains, deliver short-term gains but fracture under stress. Resilience requires redundancy, trust, and shared standards, not just price efficiency.

Building health system coherence

Healthcare is not a single industry but an interconnected system encompassing pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics, digital infrastructure, and human capital. Fragmented approaches may deliver short-term efficiency but undermine long-term robustness.

India’s progress in digital health illustrates what systemic thinking can achieve. The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission now connects hundreds of millions of citizens and tens of thousands of facilities into a unified digital health architecture- an integration few countries have attempted at comparable scale.

For the EU, this opens pathways for collaboration on interoperable standards, real-world evidence, population health analytics, and cross-border research. More importantly, it signals India’s institutional capacity to govern and scale complex health technologies- an essential foundation for strategic trust.

India as a stable node in a diversified supply network

Medical devices offer a revealing case study. India remains import-dependent for high-end imaging, diagnostics, and critical-care technologies. European firms lead in these segments but require predictable regulation and long-term investment certainty.

India’s recent emphasis on quality standards, regulatory strengthening, and targeted manufacturing incentives reflects a strategic shift—from volume-driven growth to credibility-driven capacity. When standards align, localisation becomes a strategic choice rather than a regulatory compulsion.

The pandemic underscored this reality. India’s rapid scale-up of PPE and its role as a dependable supplier of essential medicines reshaped perceptions of reliability. “Safe factories” are not about branding; they are about confidence- that production will endure crises, quality will hold, and politics will not disrupt delivery.

This confidence is reinforced by a deeper institutional attribute that is often underweighted in trade texts but central to long-horizon healthcare investment: legal and governance reliability. India is the only major democracy in Asia with the strategic autonomy, and the constitutional, judicial, and contractual architecture- to protect intellectual property and contractual rights without being intimidated by any power, eastern or western. Strategic autonomy has a cost; this is one of its dividends. For EU companies, it means long-horizon innovation, licensing, and manufacturing commitments can be anchored in a rule-of-law environment with predictable recourse.

For an EU increasingly focused on “de-risking” rather than decoupling, India represents not a low-cost alternative, but a stabilising node in a diversified healthcare supply network.

Human capital and managed mobility

Infrastructure alone does not deliver outcomes; people do. Europe’s healthcare systems are increasingly strained by workforce shortages, while India faces a workforce paradox- overall gaps and uneven distribution alongside underemployment and limited absorption of some trained cadres in certain regions and segments.

This need not be framed as brain drain. With structured mobility arrangements, skills circulation can raise standards on both sides. Training, exposure to advanced systems, and eventual reintegration create positive feedback loops; provided mobility is governed rather than accidental.

History repeatedly shows that systems ignoring workforce dynamics struggle to translate investment into impact. Healthcare is no exception.

Building a capability corridor

Nearly two centuries ago, Victor Hugo envisioned a Europe bound together by trade rather than conflict; where interdependence reinforced peace. The India–EU partnership offers a chance to extend that logic beyond geography.

As the proposed FTA takes shape, healthcare must be woven into its core architecture. Not as a concession to one sector, but as recognition that healthcare and medical technology are strategic assets. Systems that preserve life are inseparable from systems that preserve stability. India and the EU now face a choice. They can rely on legacy trade models and leave resilience to chance. Or they can build a capability corridor- shared standards, shared investments, and shared trust- that strengthens both partners in an uncertain world.

In an era where resilience matters as much as growth, partnerships that combine scale with innovation and trust with transparency will shape not only healthcare outcomes, but the global order itself. The wiser course is clear.