Originally reported and written in May 2023, this story has been republished as part of our archival content.

Akanksh Tandon fondly recalls playing with his friends in Madiyado, a village located in the Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh. However, one day, he tragically lost one of his dear friends, a seven-year-old girl, and never saw her again.

“She was the daughter of my house-help. I was told she had diarrhoea and her mother didn’t have enough financial resources to go to the city for treatment. Back then, we had only heard about the deaths of the elderly, not children. It was unfair to her,” the 37-year-old tells The Better India.

Years later, Akanksh realised that the lives of his friends and tens of thousands of others could be saved if proper medical infrastructure were to be implemented in villages.

“In rural areas, people blame their destiny and God’s will if anyone succumbs to the disease. If that is the case, then why do children in other countries not die in large numbers? It is not what God wanted for us, it is an infrastructure gap,” he says.

To improve primary healthcare services and prevent such deaths, Akanksh co-founded a health-tech startup DigiQure in 2020 along with his friends Saket Asati and Ankur Chourasia.

With their startup, they connect underprivileged rural residents with healthcare specialists via video consultations through subscription-based cards at Re 1. Moreover, they also offer digital prescriptions, lab test services, and referrals to partner hospitals for secondary care.

So far, he has been able to cater to more than 20,000 residents in rural Madhya Pradesh through........

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