In cataract surgery, the clouded lens of the eye is replaced with an artificial one. When doctors at the Aravind eye hospitals of Madurai began to use artificial lenses in the early 1990s, they cost 50 to 100 dollars each. Aravind then began to make its own, through Aurolab. “Aravind’s low costs and efficiencies instantly lowered that price to ten dollars,” PBS NewsHour reported in 2009. By 2009 Aurolab lenses sold for as little as two dollars.
At Aravind, PBS added, “on average one paying customer supports four free.”