New Delhi . The exports of India's medical technology industry can increase five times to $ 20 billion by 2030, which is currently $ 4 billion. However, this requires government incentives. This information was given by industry body CII.
Himanshu Baid, chairman of the National Medical Technology Forum at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the medical technology sector, currently available for select medical devices, will be extended to all products, Also there is a need to provide export incentives to manufacturers to 'reimburse hidden costs'.
He further said, “Today we are importing about 60 to 70 percent of the medical equipment required in the country. Whereas, our manufacturing is still very low as only about 30 percent of the required medical equipment is manufactured in the country. Our imports are much more than our exports. Our imports are around $8 billion and our exports are around $4 billion.”
Baid further said that by taking advantage of China Plus One strategy, we can easily expand this industry rapidly.
He further said that on one hand the country's exports will increase by 2030. At the same time, imports may come down from $8 billion to $3 to $4 billion.
According to Baid, the industry needs some reforms for ease of doing business, including the complexity of rules at the time of quality control orders, etc., which affects the country's exports and manufacturing.
Baid stressed that around 3,000 products are regulated by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) in India. We need a PLI like scheme for the entire sector. PLI scheme should not be limited to only a few products. The government should encourage every manufacturing happening in the country to move forward in the global markets.
He said that only 28 companies are included in the current PLI scheme for the medical device industry. Its budget is Rs 3,400 crore and only 10 to 20 percent of the funds have been utilized.
Baid said there is a need to improve India's export infrastructure. We can't wait for two to three weeks to ship our containers out of the country, whereas in China, it takes maybe two or three days to ship product out.
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Image Credit: KhasKhabar.