108 (emergency telephone number)

In the early 2000s, it was estimated that inadequate timely medical response resulted in the deaths of at least four million Indians every year.

[3][4] Initially, it was funded by Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computer Services with the Government of Andhra Pradesh being a non-funding partner and was later taken over by GVK Industries.

In case of medical emergency, it is passed on to the relevant ambulance operator and hospitals while other requests are forwarded to the respective departments.

Government of India provides funding for the set-up on infrastructure including call centers, ambulances, software and other hardware.

The infrastructure costs less than US$0.5 per person served compared to US$50 for the similar 911 service in the United States and the per person service costs range up to US$15 in India compared to US$800 in the U.S.[9] The Government provides funding and oversees the operations, but the entire operations and maintenance of infrastructure is contracted to the private entities.

When the ambulance reaches the location, the EMT provides required support and the patient is carried to the nearest health center prescribed.

[1] The challenges in the emergency response system in India include communication barriers due to the existence of large number of languages and dialects, optimizing the route taken to reach the person in distress and back to the health care center due to poor data on the available routes in rural areas and the existent condition of roads.

[1] Though hailed as an emergency service, there have been issues such as poor oversight by the provincial governments, concerns on training and staff welfare in the system.