Mumbai: India is weighing plans to accelerate local manufacturing of about 10 high-value medical devices such as MRI systems, pacemakers, continuous glucose monitoring devices, advanced ultrasound equipment, and high-end diagnostic analysers, as part of efforts to reduce reliance on costly imports, said industry executives.
This follows recent consultations between the industry and the department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT), which is evaluating targeted support measures for import-dependent tech, the executives said. “We are hearing a lot from the government side…Some new schemes are coming and there was a meeting last week with DPIIT,” said Himanshu Baid, managing director of Poly Medicure. “They were trying to identify around 10 product categories where they want to fast-track development of those technologies in India.”
Confirming the development, Rajiv Nath, forum coordinator of industry body Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) said, “The government through DPIIT and DoP is consulting industry on identifying 8-10 high-value medical devices for accelerated indigenous production.”
The Centre has reviewed the existing data and is considering internally to create its own priority list of 8-10 devices where policy support will be most impactful, said Nath.
“This is a timely move, given that imports of medical devices rose last year by 17% to ₹89,000 crore, up from ₹76,000 crore,” said Nath.
Measures under consideration include tariff review, component indigenisation, public procurement incentives, R&D support, and targeted subsidies. Some categories under consideration include MRI and its critical components and raw material, continuous glucose monitoring system (CGM), high-end ultrasound probes/ultrasound console-parts/accessory used in imaging medical device (ultrasound), X-ray tube/imaging detectors/X-ray generators used in imaging medical devices, ICU bed, high-end and high throughput in-vitro diagnostics analysers and their reagents and pacemaker.
India imports 6,000 medical devices across 160 eight-digit HS codes. Of these, 40 HS codes with imports exceeding ₹500 crore each account for ₹77,000 crore-nearly 85% of the import bill. The top 19 products alone represent ₹26,000 crore, or nearly 30% of total imports.
Industry leaders are also expecting an extension of the existing production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme or the launch of a new PLI 2.0 programme for the medtech sector. India imports nearly $8 billion worth of medical devices annually while exporting about $4 billion.
“I’m hearing about PLI getting extended or maybe a new PLI coming for the medtech sector. So, a lot of action from the government side is happening,” said Baid.
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