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Telemedicine gets much-needed boost due to Covid2019

Published

6 years ago

June 19, 2020

MUMBAI: Covid2019 has forced the entire medical workforce to focus on just the pandemic creating a shortage of clinics and hospitals for other medical needs. This has trained the lens on telemedicine as an alternative option. Telemedicine is a tool that allows a patient to consult a respective Medical Council verified doctor 24*7, from anywhere in the country.

Communicating with a doctor is a huge problem in India, given the skewed doctor-patient ratio in the country that stands at 1:1700. The situation is tense especially in the non-metro areas. Experts believe that telemedicine can function as a great force multiplier in such a scenario.

The system has been around in developed countries for decades and has flourished well. However, in India, it failed to get going due to a lack of technological adoption and an overall reliance on conventional healthcare. The benefits of telemedicine and remote-monitoring have come to fore during the ongoing pandemic crisis.

According to experts, technology supporting telemedicine has been available in India for many years now. However, the reluctance among the public was primarily due to the perception that it is a complicated process suitable to tech-savvy people only. But now, when stepping out is advisable only in times of emergency, teleconsult plays an important role.

Experts also suggest that in the coming years, AI/ML will be used heavily in the healthcare sector. AI/ML can help optimise the limited medical resources countries have by differentiating between emergency and non-emergency cases. So wherever influx is higher and resources are limited, AI/ML can be pivotal. This has encouraged countries to implement long-term telehealth tools and enhance interoperability of electronic medical records.

Practo chief healthcare strategy officer Alexander Kuruvilla told indiantelevision.com that in the last few days Practo received requests from many hospitals and clinics to make online consultation services live for them. The company is also reaching out to a lot of establishments so it can continue consulting their patients online.

He also mentions that the government’s push towards the telemedicine sector will play a key role in giving a fillip to the industry.

According to McKinsey, India could save up to $10 billion in 2025, if telemedicine replaced 30 to 40 per cent of in-person outpatient consultations and there is digitisation in the overall healthcare industry.

Portea Medical COO Vaibhav Tewari says that all doctors and nurses working with the firm have passed rigorous hiring standards, with their backgrounds and medical knowledge verified by senior authorities.

Tewari notes that India has a severe shortage of qualified doctors and the doctor to patient ratio gets worse from non-metro city areas. Telemedicine addresses this problem by providing access to qualified doctors from all parts of the country. It is highly affordable too.

Lybrate is a free platform for users and doctors to use. Users can consult their choice of a doctor privately by paying a consultation fee online. On top of the doctor’s consultation fee, the user has to pay an internet handling fee to Lybrate which makes up for the company’s revenue.

At Portea Medical, patients register on the portal by filling in their details. Subsequently, the patient can consult the doctor, get prescriptions reviewed, diagnostic tests analysed and also seek the doctor’s advice on the treatment process to be adopted. According to Tewari this is usually faster and more affordable than taking a telephonic appointment with a doctor.

Kuruvilla explains, “We wanted to ensure patients and doctors can connect at any time, communicate asynchronously or synchronously depending on their needs. We support three modes of communication on our platform. The first is real-time text-based chat which allows patients and doctors to talk asynchronously where patients can share documents and photos with the doctor real time. For cases that require more attention especially where visual and verbal cues are important, we also support audio and video chat.”

He further adds that built-in features like image sharing, voice calling and video call (only on the app) ensure that doctors get all the required information for a diagnosis and refer for a physical visit to a clinic if required. The response time to get in touch with doctors is also as low as one to 60 seconds in some specialties.

According to Practo Insights, 1 March 2020 onwards, online consultations on the platform grew by 500 per cent, 35 per cent of the consultations are from women while 65 per cent are from men. 60 per cent of the overall queries were from metro cities while 40 per cent of all teleconsults were from Tier-2/3 cities.

Metro cities from where most of the queries are coming include Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai. Non-metro cities from where most of the queries are coming from are Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bhubaneshwar and Indore.

Lybrate witnessed a jump of over 120 per cent since the outbreak and the subsequent lockdown. The highest jump has been witnessed from Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Ahmedabad and Chennai.

Portea Medical saw a 60 per cent spike in teleconsultation since the pandemic broke out and the company is planning to integrate telemedicine as an integral aspect of its future initiatives.

Tewari mentions that digital stethoscopes, ventilators, home dialysis machines, heart monitoring devices and various other remote diagnostic/monitoring tools are used in telemedicine. He also points out that the equipment used by telemedicine service providers is more advanced than the equipment used by doctors at their clinics or in-local hospitals.

Portea Medical currently manages about 120,000+ patient visits each month and works with more than 50 leading hospital partners, 15 pharma majors, and leading insurance companies in India.

According to the Practo, there has been a surge in specialties like gynaecology, (250 per cent), pediatric (350 per cent) and psychiatry (200 per cent).

Queries on mental health grew by 80 per cent in the metro cities in the last two weeks while consultations in tier 2+ cities grew by 35 per cent. Top queries discussed were loneliness, anxiety and stress management and panic attacks.

Discussing the growth plans Kuruvilla quips, “Over the last few days, we’ve received requests from many hospitals and clinics to make the online consultation services live for them. We’re also reaching out to a lot of establishments, so they can continue consulting their patients online.”

Lybrate does not offer bundled service wherein only a handful of doctors are available on the platform. “Going forward, we are aiming for 50 per cent of the doctors in the country to offer teleconsultation through Lybrate,” says Lybrate founder and CEO Saurabh Arora.

Other than that, the company is also focusing on tapping next generation users, especially the youth, not just in metro cities but also in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. The focus is to understand their emotional, mental and development needs.

Portea Medical has been seeing a 30 per cent to 50 per cent growth year-on-year. Within home care, elder care is a major focus area for the company. It also has plans to tie up with NGOs and event agencies to create workshops for their new service line, that is, Portea Health Prime to grow elder communities in key cities.

"It will be optimistic to say people will depend upon telemedicine services for healthcare-related issues like they are doing now once the situation normalises. While the trend would see a decline when the situation would begin normalising, it is likely to settle at a point which will be notably higher than the pre-crisis level,” concludes Arora.

Related Topics:covid2019 elemedicine Lybrate Out of hospital service Portea Medical Practo

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Netflix India names Rekha Rane director of films and series marketing

Streaming giant bets on a seasoned marketer who helped build Amazon and Netflix into household names

Published

4 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Netflix has put a proven brand builder at the helm of its films and series marketing in India, naming Rekha Rane as director in a move that signals sharper focus on audience growth and cultural cut-through in one of its most hotly contested markets.

Rane steps into the role after seven years at Netflix, where she has quietly shaped how the platform sells stories to India. Her latest promotion, effective February 2026, crowns a run that spans brand, slate and product marketing across originals, licensed content and new verticals such as games.

A strategic marketing and communications professional with roughly 15 years’ experience, Rane has spent much of her career building technology-led consumer businesses and new categories, notably e-commerce and subscription video on demand. She was part of the early push that introduced Amazon.in, Prime Video and Netflix to Indian homes, then helped turn them into everyday brands.

At Netflix, she most recently served as head of brand and slate marketing for India from March 2024 to February 2026, leading teams across media and marketing for global and local content portfolios. Before that, as manager for original films and series marketing, she led IP creation and go-to-market strategy for titles including Guns and Gulaabs, Kaala Paani, The Railway Men* and The Great Indian Kapil Show, spanning both binge and weekly-release formats.

Her earlier Netflix roles covered product discovery and promotion in India and integrated campaign strategy to drive conversations around the content slate, product awareness and brand-equity metrics.

Before Netflix, Rane logged more than three years at Amazon in brand marketing roles in Bengaluru. There she handled national and regional campaigns for Amazon.in, worked on customer assistance programmes in growth geographies and contributed to the go-to-market strategy for the launch of Prime Video India.

Her career began well away from streaming. At Reliance Brands in Mumbai, she worked on retail marketing for Diesel and Superdry. A stint at Leo Burnett saw her work on primary research for P&G Tide, mapping Indian shoppers’ paths to purchase. Earlier still, at Orange in the United Kingdom, she rose from sales assistant to store manager, running a team and owning monthly P&L for a retail outlet.

The arc is telling. As global streamers fight for attention in a crowded Indian market, executives who understand both mass retail behaviour and digital habit-building are prized. Rane’s career sits at that intersection.

For Netflix, the bet is simple: in a market spoilt for choice, sharp marketing can still tilt the screen. And with Rane now leading the charge, the streamer is signalling it wants not just viewers, but fandom.

Brands

Orient Beverages pops the fizz with steady Q3 gains and rising profits

Kolkata-based beverage maker reports stronger revenues and profits for December quarter.

Published

4 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: A fizzy quarter with a steady aftertaste that’s how Orient Beverages Limited, the company that manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water under the brand name Bisleri closed the December 2025 period, as the Kolkata-based drinks maker reported improved revenues and a healthy rise in profits, signalling operational stability in a competitive beverage market.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Orient Beverages posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 39.98 crore, up from Rs 36.42 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 33.53 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter stood at Rs 42.24 crore, reflecting consistent demand and stable pricing across its beverage portfolio.

Profit before tax for the quarter came in at Rs 3.47 crore, a sharp improvement from Rs 1.31 crore in the September quarter and Rs 0.39 crore a year ago. After accounting for tax expenses of Rs 0.79 crore, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore, nearly three times the Rs 0.99 crore recorded in the preceding quarter.

On a nine-month basis, the momentum remained intact. Revenue from operations for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 117.66 crore, compared with Rs 106.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the nine months climbed to Rs 5.51 crore, more than double the Rs 2.18 crore reported in the same period of the previous financial year.

The consolidated numbers told a similar story. For the December quarter, consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 45.06 crore, while profit after tax came in at Rs 2.06 crore. For the nine-month period, consolidated revenue touched Rs 133.57 crore, with net profit of Rs 4.49 crore, underscoring the group’s improving profitability trajectory.

Operating expenses remained largely controlled, with cost of materials, employee benefits and other expenses broadly aligned with revenue growth. The company continued to operate within a single reportable segment beverages simplifying its cost structure and reporting framework.

The unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 7 February 2026. Statutory auditors carried out a limited review and reported no material misstatements in the results.

In a market where margins are often squeezed by input costs and competition, Orient Beverages’ latest numbers suggest the company has found a reliable rhythm not explosive, but steady enough to keep the fizz alive.

Brands

BCCL profit jumps 53 per cent in FY25 as tax bill shrinks

Revenue rises 4.3 per cent to Rs 10,209.33 crore while deferred tax gain lifts bottom line sharply

Published

4 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

NEW DELHI: Bennett, Coleman and Company (BCCL) has posted a sparkling set of financial results for the year ended 31 March 2025, proving that there is still plenty of ink and gold left in the ledger.

Revenue from operations climbed a steady 4.3 per cent, reaching Rs 10,209.33 crore compared to Rs 9,786.44 crore the previous year. When you sprinkle in other income, which rose 8.9 per cent to Rs 949.36 crore, the total income for the media behemoth hit a healthy Rs 11,158.69 crore.

While the income grew at a modest pace, the bottom line tells a far more dramatic story. The real headline is the 53 per cent surge in annual profit. How did they pull off such a feat? While Profit Before Tax (PBT) saw a gentle nudge upward of 2.7 per cent to Rs 1,610.00 crore, it was a vanishing act by the taxman that really did the trick.

Total tax expenses plummeted by 32.4 per cent, dropping from Rs 468.76 crore down to Rs 316.97 crore. This was largely thanks to a swing in deferred tax, moving from an expense of Rs 156.02 crore in FY24 to a benefit of Rs 39.44 crore this year.

Total income rose from Rs 10,658.55 crore in FY24 to Rs 11,158.69 crore in FY25, marking a 4.7 per cent increase. Total expenses grew at a slower pace, up 3.0 per cent from Rs 9,306.06 crore to Rs 9,581.45 crore. Profit before tax inched up 2.7 per cent, moving from Rs 1,567.02 crore to Rs 1,610.00 crore. However, the standout figure was net profit, which jumped sharply by 53.0 per cent, climbing from Rs 1,042.03 crore in FY24 to Rs 1,594.73 crore in FY25.

Despite the rising costs of doing business across the globe, BCCL kept a tight grip on the purse strings. Total expenses rose by just 3.0 per cent to Rs 9,581.45 crore. By keeping costs lower than the rate of income growth, the company ensured that the final figure, a net profit of Rs 1,594.73 crore, was nothing short of a front-page sensation.

In a world of shifting digital tides, it seems the BCCL ship is not just steady, but sailing into significantly wealthier waters.