Backed by growing healthcare needs and the government’s commitment to facilitate growth, the Indian medical devices industry has the power to emerge as the global leader in manufacturing and innovation in the next 25 years, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Tuesday.The medical devices sector is an essential and integral constituent of India‘s healthcare sector, he said during his interaction with representatives of Japanese medical devices companies in Tokyo.

“The sector’s contribution became even more prominent as India supported the domestic and global battle against COVID-19 pandemic through large scale production of medical devices and diagnostic kits,” he said.

Dr Mandaviya noted that the medical devices sector has the potential to grow from its current size of USD 11 billion to four times by 2030.

He further stated that “backed by growing health care needs and the government’s commitment to facilitate growth, the Indian medical devices industry has the power to emerge as the global leader in manufacturing and innovation in the next 25 years, and we are committed to its growth and progress to become self-reliant and contribute towards the goal of universal healthcare in line with India’s G20 presidency mantra of ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’.”

The minister also highlighted that to invite investors from across the world, India is allowing 100 per cent FDI (foreign direct investment) under the automatic route for both Greenfield and Brownfield setups.

To boost domestic manufacturing, the government launched the Production Linked Incentive Schemes for medical devices with financial incentives worth 400 million dollars. To support our investor community, the government has also approved the establishment of four medical devices parks in the states.

These parks will significantly reduce manufacturing cost, optimise resources, build on economies of scale, and provide easy access to standard testing and infrastructure facilities. Mandaviya noted that in order to facilitate orderly growth of the medical devices sector and to meet the public health objectives of access, affordability, quality and innovation, India recently approved its first National Medical Devices Policy.

“We have identified six strategies to tap the potential of the sector and to strengthen the industry into a competitive, self-reliant, resilient and innovative industry that caters to the healthcare needs of India and the world.

“In addition to the Medical Devices Policy, we are also proposing a National Policy on Research and Development and Innovation in the pharma- MedTech sector in India to enable strong collaborations and translational research,” he stated.

“With rapid strides in innovation, India is now on a momentous journey to take on the global arena in the sphere of medical devices and technologies and invited Japanese medical devices companies to take advantage of these opportunities to ‘Make in India’, ‘Innovate in India’, and ‘Discover in India’,” he added.