Scope for making medical devices immense: GE HealthCare

NEW DELHI: Opportunities for the manufacturing of medical devices in India are ‘almost unlimited’, says Chaitanya Sarawate, president and CEO of GE HealthCare South Asia, looking at a future where the healthcare sector could generate millions of jobs each year and expand care access.

According to Sarawate, who is also MD, Wipro GE Healthcare, new age technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are significantly improving care quality and access to care. “At GE HealthCare, we believe in the power of integrating the logic-driven world of software with the digital world of devices. We believe in solutions that are linked, responsive, and predictive,” Sarawate said.

The company, he said, was able to enhance infrastructure scalability for both R&D and production using Amazon Web Services.

On growth opportunities before the medical devices industry, he said “Two significant changes are occurring in the overall healthcare industry in India - on the one hand, the pandemic has catalysed an incremental public and private investment in the healthcare infrastructure to enhance access to quality healthcare; on the other, Make in India initiatives have resulted in a radical shift in the way the Indian business ecosystem views the medical devices industry.”

With the expansion of healthcare and government schemes such as PLI (production linked incentive), “we are now witnessing more investments in manufacturing and component manufacturing. This, in turn, will help in improving access to quality healthcare in India and grow our export revenues,” he added.

The healthcare sector would be generating millions of jobs each year, increasing the foreign exchange earnings, and expanding care access, he sought to point out.

In a country with about 70 per cent import dependence in medical devices industry, there is an almost unlimited opportunity to boost production to cater to the domestic market. This is translating into incremental investments in medical device manufacturing in India from global manufacturers, said Sarawate .

On the new initiatives, he said “India is a dynamic market. We are among the first medtech companies to design and Make in India, for India and the world. We have reinstated our commitment to building the Make in India dream through multiple initiatives. Of the total sales of our products in India, around a third of manufacturing/assembly is being driven out of India. We have over 30 products Made in India sold in more than 70 countries.”

In March, Wipro GE Healthcare invested a little over Rs 1 billion (Rs 100 crore) in its fourth manufacturing facility under the PLI scheme.