ChallengeIn the market town of Kashipur, a young mother goes into labour late at night. The nearest hospital with an ICU is hours away, and every minute matters. Across rural and semi-urban India, this has been the reality: late-stage diagnoses, preventable deaths, and crushing medical costs. Investment in advanced healthcare has flowed to India’s biggest cities, leaving Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns with little more than basic clinics and no ICU, oncology, or cardiology services. The divide is measured not just in kilometres, but in life expectancy.     SolutionUjala Cygnus Healthcare set out to change this story by bringing the hospital to the patient rather than sending the patient on a costly and dangerous journey. The organisation has built a network of 27 accredited, multi-specialty hospitals in 23 cities across North India, introducing services like emergency cardiac care, cancer treatment, and neonatal intensive care to communities that had never had them.  At the heart of its approach are Sehat Chaupals, community health gatherings that bring preventive screenings, education, and early diagnosis to village squares, temple courtyards, and school grounds. In just two years, over 6,800 chaupals have reached 540,000 people, helping to spot high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer before they become fatal.  Technologically, Ujala operates on a hub-and-spoke model. Multi-specialty hospitals in Tier 2 towns act as hubs, linked to satellite clinics and outreach camps in surrounding villages. This structure means a patient in a remote village does not need to travel hundreds of kilometres to see a cardiologist. Instead, their local doctor can connect them to a hub hospital through telemedicine platforms and shared digital health records. By blending grassroots mobilisation with technology, Ujala has adapted creatively to the realities of rural India.  Between October 2022 and October 2024, Ujala Cygnus treated more than 2.5 million patients, expanding its network with six new hospitals in districts that previously lacked advanced medical infrastructure. ImpactThe availability of round-the-clock specialist care improved neonatal survival rates by 30 percent in areas like Kashipur and reduced maternal mortality rates in multiple catchment zones. More than 60,000 patients accessed treatment under government insurance schemes, reducing the burden of out-of-pocket expenses for vulnerable families.  Teleconsultation services reached over 45,000 people in remote areas, cutting travel-related emissions and improving timely access to care. The organisation also implemented green hospital practices, including biomedical waste segregation, energy-efficient lighting, and water conservation, while reducing paper use by 40 percent through digitalisation. Employment in host communities increased by 30 percent through the hiring of local medical, nursing, and support staff, reinforcing healthcare access with economic empowerment.   Future outlookBy 2026, Ujala Cygnus plans to operate 30 hospitals across North and Central India, reaching 350,000 people annually through 6,000 Sehat Chaupals. It will expand comprehensive cancer care to five hospitals, introducing chemotherapy, PET scans, and radiotherapy.  Over the longer term, the organisation aims to serve more than 10 million patients annually, create India’s largest rural-specialty hospital network across ten states, and cut preventable mortality in its catchment areas by 25 percent, verified by independent audits.  Each expansion ensures that stories like the one in Kashipur become the rule rather than the exception—where care arrives in time, and survival is not determined by geography.