Covid-19 pandemic has jolted healthcare systems across the world out of their slumber. Fulfilling the need for affordable and easily accessible healthcare which had been in the to-do list of health departments for too long has now become an immediate priority. One of the first steps towards accomplishing this goal is to strengthen the medical electronics equipment capability of healthcare providers. Hence, the medical electronics industry has been witnessing a double digit growth recently. The medical electronics market has grown at a CAGR of 17 percent in the past few years.
With the implementation of medical electronics technology, the healthcare infrastructure is being reinvigorated starting from digitization of medical diagnosis and therapy to boosting the accessibility of healthcare through telemedicine. However, the major impediment to its fast adoption is the fact that India depends on imports for most of its medical equipment requirements. The major demand which is for cancer diagnostics, orthopaedic and prosthetic equipment, imaging, and electro medical devices, etc. is met by importing them from other countries.
Although steps pertaining to FDI have been taken by the government, the lack of standard regulatory framework and incentive to domestic manufacturers is what is keeping the industry from prospering in India. Currently, the medical device regulation in India applies only to particular product categories. To make matters worse, non-alignment of the current regulations with global standards adds to the woes of manufacturers who want to scale their business and expand their reach to global markets. Then there is a lack of proper product testing infrastructure which is also preventing the sector to tread forward on the path of growth.
