Medical device manufacturing MSMEs: India Chamber of Business and Commerce and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Thursday signed a memorandum of association (MOA) at the MSME Ministry’s premises. The MOA aims to promote India as first, a global hub in healthcare manufacturing and delivery, second, for creating a global stakeholders platform for building a robust healthcare ecosystem promoting the future of health capabilities in India and third, promoting investment creation in the field of healthcare, the ministry said in a statement.
“Ministry of MSME is focusing on building robust manufacturing capabilities in the healthcare sector to make India a new hub for medical devices and Atmanirbhar in the healthcare sector,” said Rane.
According to the ministry, the MOA is in line with creating institutional arrangement for India Health Dialogue which is the national flagship initiative by the India Chamber of Business and Commerce in partnership with ICMR, IMA and the MSME ministry to build a profound business ecosystem for transforming health and healthcare for the future and building India led global supply chain networks.
Nitin Pangotra, President and CEO, India Chamber of Business and Commerce said that the future of healthcare is based on digital and smart healthcare delivery, tech-enabled and innovation-based high-quality manufacturing, diversification into critical healthcare equipment and medical devices, diagnostics, drug parks etc., and application of new innovation and technologies into the healthcare system.
The MOA will focus on promoting the business ecosystem for building a global Platform for promoting investment opportunities, global collaborations, innovation and entrepreneurship in the Indian healthcare manufacturing and services sector, he added.
The Indian medical technology industry is small, worth $11 billion in 2020, and is also import dependent. However, it is expected to grow rapidly to $50 billion in 2025, said a report by Wadhwani Foundation, Cyient and Xynteo in April last year on Accelerating Innovation and Scale-up of SMEs in Medtech.
Importantly, healthcare as an industry vertical, and SMEs as a category of companies, have been large providers of employment opportunities, especially for women, the report noted. Medtech SMEs constitute 60- 70 per cent of the Indian medical devices sector and an estimated 750-800 medtech SMEs are active in this space.
In May this year, Rane had also launched a new platform India Health Dialogue (IHD) to enhance MSMEs in healthcare with advanced manufacturing capabilities and boost exports in order to promote self-reliance and reduce healthcare or medical imports in the country.