Mumbai, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Dr Jitendra Singh virtually inaugurated the 13th edition of the Global MedTech Summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) from September 2 to 3 here on Thursday.
Anupriya Patel, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Prof K VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser, S Aparna, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers also attended the summit.
Speaking at the inaugural session, Dr Singh said the summit showcased the achievements of the medical technology sector and brings together the think-tank for acute deliberations and discussions on the various facets of the sector.
He said, ''India is recognized as a rising star in the sector of med tech with a potential to reach 50 USD billion by 2025. India has the technology, expertise and it has a huge potential to be explored indigenously which will serve the medical fraternity and also be in tune with our goals of becoming Aatmanirbhar.”
''Moving forward we have to integrate all the ministries, and undertake theme-based projects, rather than ministry or department-based projects. This will allow us to pool our resources and help us reach optimum outcomes with the integration of the private sector and start-ups,” he said.
The union minister said India had the best of medical management available in the best centres in India, both private and public, which are comparable to the centres in the western countries that had started earlier.
Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel said India had seen so many start-ups in the medical devices space, rise to the occasion and had helped accelerate the development of low cost scalable and quick solutions which had contributed to providing an impetus through the expansion of telemedicine and the home-based healthcare market in the country.
She said, “Exports play an important role in boosting our economic growth. The schemes aimed for strengthening the domestic manufacturing potential are not only aimed at import substitution but also expanding the exports market.”
Department of Commerce, in consultation with all stakeholders, had set a target of 400 billion dollars of merchandise exports by 2021-22 and increasing it to USD one trillion in the next six years, she added.
Prof K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser, highlighted that the market needed for success was the global market.
''Today’s cyber physical world which combines the delivery of personalized medicine with the analysis of telemedicine of data of a patient from anywhere in the country makes the Indian market very attractive. Indian companies are providing remote services combining MedTech and AI and feeding back into decision making into countries all over the world, therefore linking with med tech today will be truly transformational,” he said.