India is a country that defies generalization. It is so big, so diverse and so overwhelming that it’s easy to come back with one’s preconceptions simply confirmed. You think of India as an awakening giantwith world-beating companies? India hosts scores of futuristic technology parks with new skyscrapers spring-ing up like mushrooms. Youthink of India as a failing state that dooms its population to abjectpoverty? There is certainly no shortage of miserable slums, probably less than a kilometer from the gleaming technology park. Stupendous wealth and potholed roads jammed with sacred cows or rickshaws,deep spirituality and civil riots, world-class universities and malnourished children, it’s all there, easy to find, hard to ignore andimpossible to make sense of.These stupendous contrasts are of course reflected in the health care environment, which spans the whole gamutfrom world-class facilities to 3rd rate quacks. Still, after spending nearly five months at the Philips Innovation campus (PIC) in Bangalore and talking with health care providers, I believe there is a indeed a typical Indian DNAin healthcare that transcends most of the obvious differences.In this visitor’s report I want to share some ofmy insights on India and its health care environment. I have tried to keep the report as short as possible, a valiant attempt to summarize the flood of conflicting impressions I gathered about this fascinating country. I also added some observations on Philips Research Asia - Bangalore and its way of working. It is by no means a systematic study; rather it attempts to convey a kind of gut-feeling about India.