According to Frost & Sullivan, the medical electronics market in India was valued at $6.5 billion in 2013 and is likely to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16 per cent to reach $11.7 billion by 2017. However, indigenous manufacturing in medical electronics is still lacking in India. The Government has aided in the form of tax and duty exemptions to boost local manufacturing of medical electronics. The National Policy on Electronics has medical electronics as one of the thrust areas and provides for financial incentives for medical electronics manufacturing not only for new units but also for units relocating from outside India. The Drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Bill, 2013 is now considering recognising medical devices as separate from pharmaceutical products in the regulatory structure. A strong framework that provides for medical devices standards in India is an imperative to boost domestic manufacturing, bring in reliability, and better time to market new technologies in medical electronics.
According to Niju V, Director, Automation & Electronics Practices, Frost & Sullivan, “In India, medical devices need to be made for Indian operating conditions. Focused policy on medical devices factoring in all industry stakeholders including technology developers, manufacturers, healthcare providers, insurance providers, and patient groups can give a big boost to the sector.”
According to Frost and Sullivan, for providing healthcare, which is universal, affordable, and preventive in nature, the Indian medical electronics industry will shift towards developing miniaturised, multifunctional, ultra-low power, portable, and reduced cost devices that could be used for patient monitoring, imaging, implantable, therapeutic, and surgical requirements. The wearable devices category, which is still a developing field in India, can potentially aid physicians to offer extended care outside the clinical environment. This will bring higher efficiency and increased access across Tier 2, Tier 3 cities, and rural India, while providing improved healthcare delivery to urban India.
According to Niju V, “Five aspects including miniaturization through System on Chip (SoC) designs, wireless integrated circuits, efficient power management, intelligent sensors, and connected IT infrastructure will dominate future technology landscape of the Indian medical electronics industry.”
EH News Bureau