Union Minister of State (Independent Representative) for Science and Technology; Minister of State (Independent Representative) for Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that the healthcare sector in India is expected to grow to $50 billion by 2025. Addressing the 14th CII Global MedTech Summit, titled ‘Seizing the Global Opportunity‘, Dr. Jitendra Singh said. Jitendra Singh that under Prime Minister Modi’s government, healthcare has become more focused on innovation and technology in the last two years, and 80% of health systems are looking to increase their investment in digital health tools in the next five years.
Dr Jitendra Singh said telemedicine is also expected to reach $5.5 billion by 2025. eSanjeevani, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare conceived through a technical intervention, has enabled virtual medical consultations and connected thousands of people living in remote parts of the country with doctors from major city areas at the comfort of their homes, the minister added. Dr Jitendra Singh said the main objective of the government is to reduce import dependence from 80% to less than 30% in the next 10 years and ensure 80% self-sufficiency in Med-Tech through Make in India with SMART milestones. He said that for this purpose, the Government of India has implemented structural and permanent reforms to strengthen the healthcare sector and also announced favorable policies to encourage foreign direct investment.
This has led to a change in trend where the country has become a hotbed of MedTech innovation and instead of adopting western products, Indian innovators are developing path-breaking MedTech products and solutions. India has reached an inflection point leading to rapid expansion of the HealthTech/MedTech ecosystem. Dr Jitendra Singh highlighted that India has all the essential ingredients for exponential growth in the sector, including a large population, a strong pharmaceutical and medical supply chain, over 750 million smartphone users, the world’s third largest start-up pool with easy access to VCs . entrepreneurs in finance and innovative technology who want to solve global health care problems. The minister also noted that the pandemic has provided an additional boost by changing the business scenario in the sector.
He said this has opened up huge opportunities for the healthcare sector, especially in niche areas such as teleconsultation, AI-based diagnostics and remote healthcare management. Dr Jitendra Singh said that in relation to the vision @ 2047, India is expected to become one of the leading markets for medical devices by 14-15%. He said this global position is achievable by achieving the goals set in the National Infrastructure Pipeline 2020, to build 73 new medical colleges to increase domestic consumption and improve health infrastructure.
The minister added that India aims to achieve 10-12% global market share in the medical device sector to make it a $100-300 billion industry as per the government’s policy proposal, adding that the country will have about 50 clusters for faster clinical testing of medical devices to support product development and innovation. He further added that what will drive the sector forward is life expectancy, shift in disease burden, changes in preferences, growing middle class, increase in health insurance, medical support, infrastructure development and political support and incentives.
Dr Jitendra Singh emphasized that it is indeed time to work towards creating a global footprint by becoming a manufacturing hub and a key exporter of medical devices worldwide as this is an important objective of the Make in India campaign in which the Indian medical device sector has engaged. identified as the sunrise section. He said the recognition has given the industry a much-needed boost to deepen its prowess in the value chain across device segments, from low-tech to more sophisticated device categories.
