ERC Eye Care:

Presently operating from Upper Assam and parts of Nagaland, ERC Eye Care, founded by Dr Parveez Ubed is one such social enterprise that were started with the sole aim to provide affordable eye care to one and all in Assam and to the rural population of North- East primarily to the underserved people.

The business model of ERC was to set up centers in areas where accessibility and affordability was a problem. At the same time, he did not want ERC to be associated as an eye hospital for the poor.

Ubed was confident that each of the centers could break even quickly if he managed to keep his costs low and encourage people to understand the need for quality eye care.

The company operates on a hub-and-spoke model, which is common in the case of the diagnostics industry but has not yet been tried and tested in the eye care space. With a consultation fee of around 60, optical retail starting at 99 and cataract surgeries at 3500, one can easily grab the facilities.

The road is still not the end for ERC as it is planning to expand its hubs and spokes with the investment and also develop its IT and mobile team to reach an even larger population and spread awareness regarding eye care.

 In the northeastern part of the country, close to 10 million people suffer from visual impairments. The situation is worsened with just 25 percent of them have access to eye-care facilities.

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