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

At the peak of the pandemic — when the underlying vulnerabilities in India’s healthcare system were further exacerbated — Odisha resident Priyadarshi Mahapatra quit his job to launch CureBay.

Recalling the reason behind launching the healthtech startup, he notes, “During the pandemic, my wife had a health issue. I was confused as to what to do and where to go, because healthcare services had been affected [due to COVID]. We reached out to a hospital and were told that a certain doctor would call me. I got a call asking me to provide a Skype ID. Even being from a technical background, I did not have one. Who has it today?” 

“That got me thinking that I am going through such difficulties while living in a city like Gurugram, where we have fairly decent healthcare infrastructure. Then what is happening to those living in remote areas?” 

At the time, the 50-year-old was working as director at Google Cloud. In 2021, he quit this job to launch CureBay with his friend Shobhan Mahapatra and US-based Sanjay Swain. All the co-founders, he notes, were raised in Odisha, and came together with the common cause of bringing affordable healthcare to rural residents.

‘Never too late, never too early’ 

Priyadarshi’s mother, who is a doctor, also told him about the plight of healthcare services in the state, which has a large population of tribal communities. “She told me how people from rural areas, even during the high-risk period of the pandemic, had to travel to cities for even basic healthcare requirements.” 

Moreover, the engineer believes that a large amount of investment in India has gone into secondary and tertiary healthcare, specifically by private bodies. These investments are restricted to top cities and state capital to cater to the healthcare needs of the urban population. But what about the billions of........

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