Rishi Kumar Sonwal

A recent report by ETHealthworld has brought an important healthcare-system question back into focus. The Centre has sought an NPPA report after the Maharashtra FDA flagged significant gaps between trade procurement prices and printed MRPs of hospital consumables. The survey cited examples including an IV infusion set procured at ₹11.05 with a printed MRP of ₹325 — a reported 2,841% gap. This should not automatically become a debate about whether hospitals, manufacturers, distributors or TPAs are responsible. The bigger question is: how transparent is the financial journey of a patient through the healthcare system? Hospitals have genuine costs beyond procurement — emergency inventory, sterilisation, clinical and biomedical manpower, infrastructure, technology, traceability, expiry and obsolescence risks, compliance and 24×7 readiness. Hospital-industry representatives have also argued that the procurement price of a sophisticated medical technology cannot simply be equated with its co...

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 ...

Day 1 of BRICS 2026 has given me something more interesting to watch than the usual summit headlines: what India is actually putting on the table in HealthTech. At the BRICS Business Forum, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal described India as the “pharmacy of the world” and highlighted BRICS as an important market for Indian products. But India’s healthcare proposition is increasingly moving beyond pharmaceuticals. At the Bharat Innovates Exposition, 37 Indian deep-tech ventures are being showcased to BRICS CEOs, investors and business leaders, with the stated aim of creating technology partnerships, investment opportunities and international market access. Among the innovations on display are AI-enabled cervical cancer screening and AI-based maternal-fetal monitoring. The first could help make cervical cancer risk assessment and early detection more scalable. The second could support earlier identification of maternal and fetal risks through technology-enabled monitoring. Th...

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 India...