Skip to main content

India’s MedTech Eyeing the World: From “Make in India” to a World-Class Medical Devices Ecosystem

India MedTech Leader

Skilled talent + world-class testing infrastructure + manufacturing capability could shape India’s next MedTech leap.

Two recent developments caught my attention.

1. The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) has placed the draft Competency-Based Curriculum for a Diploma in Medical Equipment Technology in the public domain and invited suggestions/comments latest by October 1, 2026.

What makes this interesting is the breadth of the proposed curriculum.

It goes well beyond traditional equipment maintenance to include:

  • Medical imaging & diagnostic systems
  • Critical-care and life-support equipment
  • Clinical engineering & asset management
  • Healthcare IT & cybersecurity
  • AI/ML and Software as a Medical Device
  • Quality, safety, calibration and regulatory compliance
  • A 960-hour clinical internship in a hospital setting

Official NCAHP Draft Curriculum: Diploma in Medical Equipment Technology

2. Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has called upon Indian medtech companies to develop high-quality medical devices for global markets, with the government willing to support 100% of the cost of advanced testing equipment through BIS.

He has also emphasised technology partnerships, joint R&D, global benchmarking and a stronger IPR ecosystem.

The Bigger Picture

Put these two developments together and a bigger picture emerges. India needs to move from “Make in India” medical devices to “Design, Validate, Deploy and Maintain in India.”

That requires three things to move together:

  • Manufacturing capability
  • World-class testing & certification infrastructure
  • A skilled clinical engineering workforce

The proposed NCAHP curriculum addresses the third pillar.

Government support for testing infrastructure addresses an important part of the second.

The opportunity now is to connect these with the first—Indian medtech companies, hospitals, engineering institutions, startups and global technology partners working together to build products that can compete globally.

For me, this is where healthcare policy, medical technology, skilling and public-private partnerships intersect.

And perhaps the most important question is:

Can India build not just world-class medical devices, but the people and institutions capable of designing, testing, deploying and sustaining them at world-class standards?

The answer could have a significant bearing on India's ambition to become a global healthcare and medtech hub.

Discuss on Linkedin

#MedicalDevices #MedTech #Healthcare #HealthPolicy #MedicalTechnology #MakeInIndia #ClinicalEngineering #HealthcareInnovation #PublicPolicy #HealthcareCommunications

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Government of India’s Independence Day Push: From Digital Health Infrastructure to Diabetes Freedom — The Next Interoperability Challenge

During the India’s 80th Independence Day patriotic celebration, an important public-health message came that deserves attention. The Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh called for making diabetes prevention a national priority, highlighting that rural India is no longer untouched by the diabetes epidemic. The occasion also saw the launch of the RSSDI Rural Outreach Digital Portal and VISHWAS Diabetes Awareness Video Library, aimed at taking diabetes awareness, screening, treatment, follow-up and digital health resources closer to communities. WHO estimates that around 77 million adults in India are living with type 2 diabetes, while nearly 25 million more are prediabetic. Also, millions are unaware of their status. This means diabetes prevention is beyond a clinical challenge. It is increasingly a health-system, digital-health and healthcare-communication challenge. India already has important building blocks for this transformation. ABDM, digital health platforms, structured health data...
Post a Comment
Read more

BRICS 2026: India’s HealthTech Pathways Open New Leadership Possibilities — Will China Take the New Delhi Declaration Forward?

BRICS 2026 concludes with a bigger question for India’s HealthTech journey: Can the capabilities India has demonstrated at population scale become solutions and partnerships for the wider world? India entered this summit with more than a large healthcare market. It brought one of the world’s largest and most diverse healthcare ecosystems — one where digital health, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, MedTech and AI-enabled solutions are being tested across complex, high-volume and highly varied healthcare settings. The BRICS agenda has now created several pathways to take that experience further. The BRICS Integrated Early Warning System for Mass Infectious Diseases, cooperation on AI and digital tools for health, the BRICS Vaccine R&D Centre, the Compendium on Digital Health Architecture for Continuum of Care, and the BRICS Network of Centres of Excellence on Mental Health, coordinated by NIMHANS, are examples of institutional mechanisms emerging from this cooperation.  India’s own ...
Post a Comment
Read more

India’s Medical Value Tourism Push: How Health, AYUSH & Commerce Are Shaping a Connected Healthcare Ecosystem

India’s Medical Value Tourism (MVT) story is entering a more integrated phase. The Union Budget 2026–27 proposed support for five Regional Medical Hubs, in partnership with states and the private sector. These hubs are envisaged to bring together medical services, education, research, AYUSH Centres, MVT facilitation, diagnostics, post-care and rehabilitation. What interests me is not only the infrastructure, but the inter-governmental architecture developing around it. Three Ministries, one emerging ecosystem The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare is looking at the Regional Medical Hubs as integrated healthcare ecosystems. In its August review, the Ministry noted that inputs had been shared with DPIIT and that the proposed hubs would connect modern medicine with AYUSH, MVT facilitation and supporting care infrastructure. The Ministry of AYUSH has separately provided technical inputs to DPIIT for integrating AYUSH systems into the proposed hubs. Its current policy direction also ex...
Post a Comment
Read more