Online retail is a lot more complicated to deliver than online healthcare. If Mr Ghosh, who makes the best rasagulla in Kolkata, wants to send his fresh product to Bengaluru, he will confront a nightmare in terms of the cold chain logistics of transportation. Instead, if Mr Ghosh wants to consult a doctor in Bengaluru for acute chest pain from Kolkata, the doctor can converse with him on a video call and ask for some tests.

With a map app, the doctor can then direct him to the nearest diagnostic lab. When the tests are done, before Mr Ghosh puts on his clothes the doctor can see the test reports online, reassure him that his heart is fine and prescribe a pain killer.

Online retail needs to move products from point A to point B through complex logistics. Online healthcare just needs images and data to reach from point A to point B, which can be done from anywhere in the world virtually free. All it needs is an expert doctor with an internet connection and a payment gateway.

When you hear that someone is unwell, 99% of the time a sick person doesn’t need an operation. Technically, 99% of illnesses can be treated online. The treatment decision depends on history which video conferencing will provide, and interpretation of lab and organ image reports which can easily be done virtually.

Today hand held devices can check blood pressure, pulse, saturation, ECG and sugar at home. Diseases like diabetes, hypertension, obstructive lung diseases, chronic heart failure, skin diseases, routine cold, cough and fever can easily be managed online. Online diabetes management under a consultant diabetologist supported by counsellors who keep a tab on patient’s blood sugar remotely should have better outcomes.

Patients with psychiatric problems, in fact, prefer online consultation as it enables them to hide their identity. The family paediatrician needs to see the child if required once in few months. The rest of the time, such things as seasonal cold and cough can easily be managed online, which is convenient for both child and mother.

The big advantage of online healthcare is that it is at one’s fingertip, convenient for both patient and doctor since the patient can be in his bedroom and doctor may be stuck in a traffic jam. Patients from rural India can consult city experts at the click of a button. Because of the convenience, frequent consultation will improve outcomes in chronic illness like diabetes, heart failure and respiratory failure.

Technically, patients from any part of the world can consult doctors anywhere without spending any money and time on travelling. Doctors will be able to see a lot more patients without wasting time on commuting. Patients can be discharged from hospital early since doctors can monitor them from home.

Online healthcare cannot blossom without advanced electronic medical records (EMR) which will prevent doctors from making mistakes and give them real time feedback on how the patient is responding to treatment. When doctors and nurses in an American ICU are sleepy at midnight doctors and nurses from India, where it is midday, can monitor the patients virtually – thus enhancing safety and reducing costs.

Indian doctors will love it because today they can only treat patients who they can touch. Geographical barrier is a major limitation for doctors who want to expand their practice. Online healthcare will allow them to treat patients in any part of the world. However, if Indian doctors decide not to adopt technology, it is a matter of time before doctors from Bangladesh or Pakistan will fill the vacuum.

Some changes are, therefore, urgently necessary. The Medical Council of India should adopt regulations permitting doctors to offer virtual consultation and legalise virtual prescriptions. According to Indian law a doctor’s advice to patients even on telephone – a common practice today – is illegal unless it is a medical emergency.

Second, the government should define the standards for EMR development – respecting data privacy but not following the expensive HIPPA compliance so that start-ups can create mind-blowing doctor-friendly EMR on a dynamic cloud platform, unlike the billion dollar US EMR which doctors hate.

To develop doctor-friendly EMR, a technologist should work with doctors with free access to patients’ data. In the US – a country where patients’ data is more sacred than patients’ lives – this can’t happen. This is a billion dollar opportunity awaiting Indian technologists.

Through a digital sharing economy, India can become the first country in the world to dissociate healthcare and other essentials of life from affluence. India will prove to the world that the wealth of a nation has nothing to do with the quality of healthcare its citizens enjoy by offering high-tech care to the common man on a digital platform.

However, this will only happen if IT solution providers don’t get carried away with billion dollar valuations and offer services for a tiny amount of money for each transaction. Of course they will make enough money to justify their effort. But if they don’t follow the rules of the game cheap clones will follow and government will intervene, as is happening now with Uber and Airbnb.

My simple message to young tech entrepreneurs is to learn to differentiate need from greed. Success is never a zero sum game. When customers, providers and the government win, you win.

In the game of real life, “winner takes it all” never happens.