"The Union Budget laid the foundation and a roadmap for the economy over the next 25 years. We applaud the initiative to make the National Digital Health Ecosystem an open platform. Digital health professionals and facility registrations, a unique health identity, and universal access to health care facilities will all be part of this. Mobile phone tariffs have been reduced by the government, making them affordable. This will considerably boost telemedicine's capacity to spread to even the most remote parts of the country. This can be utilised to provide rural populations with the best healthcare possible. The pandemic has placed mental health at the forefront of people's minds. The government has announced a national telemental health initiative to help with this. This would feature a network of 23 high-performing telemental health centres, with Nimhans as the nodal centre and IIIT Bangalore providing technological support. This would surely increase the availability of high-quality mental health counselling and treatment. We applaud the budget because it will aid in increasing the digital penetration of health services among the general public."