| Delegates at the conference during the release of ‘Vision Document – 2025’ |
The 7th Medical Technology Conference was recently organised by the Medical Technology Division of Confederation of Indian Industry in New Delhi. Amitabh Kant, DIPP Secretary, Government of India, along with Union Health Secretary Lov Verma and Dr K Vijay Raghavan from Government of India and leading captains of medical technology industry were present at the event to unveil the ‘Vision Document – 2025’, an extensive report on the Medical Technology sector jointly prepared by CII and Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Speaking at the conference Kant said, “The Indian medical technology industry can touch more than $50 billion in the next decade if ample emphasis on local manufacturing is paid by the industry and the Government. Therefore it is essential that the sector exploits the cost advantage if it wants to compete with China for the global market.”
As per the Vision Document, getting things right could lead to a $30 billion domestic market opportunity as well as setting up the right manufacturing capabilities could spur an additional $20 billion manufacturing opportunity for the Indian medical technology space.
Verma said, “The medical technology sector should also look at CSR initiatives at promoting sanitation like building toilets in schools.” Raghavan accepted that local innovation has to be promoted if the sector has to realise its true potential and that the Government will have to play a leading, guiding role to ensure that.”
Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII said, “Due to its pleasure and potential CII is happy to acknowledge the medical technology sector as a sunrise sector.”
Expanding on the theme of effective governance, Pavan Choudary, Chairman, Medical Technology Division of the CII and Managing Director, Vygon India said, “Classification of medical devices as drugs burdens the process of investment with fiscal policy obstacles and regulatory hurdles. It impacts FDI, technology transfer, local investment, manufacturing, operations, innovation and exports.”
“The Vision Document – 2025 highlights the need for a dedicated, separate and globally harmonised regulation for medical devices,” said Himanshu Baid, Co-Chairman, CII Medical Equipment Division and Managing Director Poly Medicure.
Rahul Guha, Partner and Director, BCG India said that there was lack of investment, lack of regulation, less priority of the Government and this was therefore a vicious circle. BCG also held a set of workshops across Mumbai and Delhi to discuss and debate the right focus areas and develop a roadmap to unlock the true potential of India.
EP News Bureau – Mumbai