Quadria Capital and HealthQuad host an exclusive convening with Aspire Impact and Aspire Circle to advance ESG in Indian healthcare

New Delhi: In a landmark step toward embedding sustainability and accountability into India’s fast-growing healthcare sector, Quadria Capital and HealthQuad, in partnership with Aspire Impact and Aspire Circle, co-hosted an exclusive, invite-only event in New Delhi.

The closed-door convening brought together over 15 senior leaders from hospitals, pharmaceuticals, healthcare companies, investment, and policy-making as speakers, to launch “Healthcare: An ESG Performance Framework”, a research publication, proposing an innovative ESG measurement framework,  tailored to the specific realities of Indian healthcare.

Developed by Aspire Impact and Aspire Circle, under their Impact Future Project, powered by Capgemini, this framework marks a shift from ESG as a compliance exercise to a driver of long-term value. It introduces a dual-rating model that separately evaluates ESG risks and opportunities, using a mix of healthcare-specific and sector-agnostic KPIs, helping stakeholders benchmark performance, identify gaps, and build resilient and future-ready systems.

The research publication finds that India’s $638 billion healthcare sector serves over 1.4 billion people and employs 7.5 million, yet remains underrepresented in capital markets, comprising just 6% of the NSE’s top 1000 companies by market capitalization. The framework seeks to address this imbalance by creating a practical tool to support transparency, accountability, and investment-readiness across the healthcare ecosystem.

Rahul Agarwal, Partner at HealthQuad, said, “This framework responds to the sector’s need for practical ESG tools grounded in reality. What stood out at the convening was the alignment; from investors to operators to policymakers. ESG in healthcare is ultimately about building trust, delivering equity, and future-proofing our systems.”

Shivani Sahai, Head of Impact and ESG at Quadria Capital, said, “ESG has evolved into an important factor in the healthcare sector, and yet too often it remains disconnected from the complexities of real-world delivery and service. This framework offers a practical and comprehensive approach to embedding sustainability into decision-making across all levels of healthcare operations.”

Amit Bhatia, Founder of Aspire Impact and Aspire Circle, added, “Quadria and HealthQuad, with their deep sectoral expertise, brought the right voices together, and gave this initiative the platform it needed. At Aspire, we value the hands-on collaboration. The initiative truly gained real-world traction.”

Participants at the convening included leaders from Fortis, Apollo Hospitals, Zydus, Tata Capital Healthcare Fund, among others. The event featured panel discussions that focused on the need for governance and sector-specific ESG frameworks, and on how integrating sustainability into operations can unlock long-term value for healthcare businesses.

The framework includes 100+ KPIs, with 27 specific to healthcare, and aligns with India’s evolving ESG disclosure norms (like SEBI’s BRSR and the upcoming BRSR+) and global standards (GRI, SASB, ESRS, and 9 UN SDGs). It also incorporates double materiality mapping, helping companies assess both the ESG risks they face and the impact they create; crucial in a sector where 80% of emissions come from hospitals and supply chains, and 90% of care costs are paid directly by patients.

Additionally, the framework identifies twelve pressing ESG risks such as biomedical waste, AMR-related recalls, and operations in ecologically sensitive zones and outlines fifteen opportunities uniquely suited to India’s healthcare sector. These include participation in government schemes like Ayushman Bharat and Jan Aushadhi, WHO drug prequalification, and innovations in recyclable packaging and green R&D.

Quadria Capital and HealthQuad both bring a proven track record, through building high-performing healthcare platforms across Asia, and through the successful deployments of Funds I and II and the recent close of its $300 million Fund III. Their co-hosting of the event underscores a long-term commitment to SDG-aligned value creation, strong governance, and investment-ready healthcare systems.