To truly accelerate domestic value addition, the MedTech industry must act collectively 

India’s medical devices sector has seen significant policy momentum in recent years, from the National Medical Devices Policy to PLI schemes and dedicated MedTech parks. How are these reforms influencing the industry’s next stage of growth? 

Every step that the government is enabling is a promise towards strengthening domestic manufacturing to investing ambitiously in enhancing India’s clinical, academic, and technological capacity, which in turn strengthens the environment needed for MedTech innovation to scale. By elevating India’s position as a credible global destination for medical-value care, these hubs can accelerate the adoption of high-quality medical devices and create opportunities for the industry to serve both domestic and international markets. As the policy landscape becomes more supportive of advanced manufacturing and R&D, India is better positioned to transition from being a large MedTech consumer to becoming a meaningful global contributor, powering a new era of accessibility, innovation, and self-reliance in healthcare. 

With India aspiring to become a global MedTech hub, what are the elements from a regulatory/policy standpoint that require further deliberation? 

In India, the policy intent we have seen over the past few years, from the National Medical Devices Policy to dedicated manufacturing schemes and the broader “Make in India” vision, is both commendable and noteworthy. These efforts reflect a clear ambition: to shift the country from an import-dependent market to a global centre for MedTech innovation, manufacturing, and high-quality patient care. As India accelerates toward this goal, there are a few regulatory and policy elements that merit deeper deliberation to ensure the sector can truly scale to its full potential. 

A key priority is strengthening the regulatory environment to reflect the unique nature of medical devices. MedTech is fundamentally different from pharmaceuticals, involving mechanical, electrical, and software-driven technologies, and therefore requires policies and regulatory structures designed specifically for devices. Continued refinement of device-specific standards, clearer pathways for product approvals, and consistent interpretation of guidelines across states and institutions will help create a more predictable, innovation-friendly environment for manufacturers. 

Another important area is harmonisation of Indian and global quality standards. As India positions itself as a global MedTech hub, alignment with international norms will be essential to ensure that locally designed and manufactured technologies are competitive in quality, safety, and reliability. Reducing overlapping regulations and ensuring uniform compliance requirements across ministries will help remove unintended barriers that currently add cost and complexity to domestic manufacturers. 

To truly accelerate domestic value addition, the MedTech industry must act collectively by strengthening India anchored R&D beyond local assembly, designing solutions tailored to Indian use-cases while ensuring global scalability, and advancing supplier development, particularly across Tier-2 and Tier-3 ecosystems. This should be complemented by close collaboration with government on standards, regulatory clarity, and faster approval pathways, alongside a strong emphasis on workforce capability development. By aligning innovation, execution, and policy partnership, the industry can help India progress from a large healthcare market to a global MedTech innovation powerhouse, fully aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat and Make in India. 

As India aspires to become a global MedTech hub, addressing these regulatory and policy considerations, while building on the strong progress already made, will be key to unlocking the next phase of growth for the sector. 

Despite policy momentum, India still imports over 70 per cent of its MedTech equipment, especially in high technology categories. In the context of Make in India and the government’s push for deeper domestic value addition, how is Wipro GE HealthCare accelerating indigenous R&D, supply chain localisation, and India based product innovation to serve both domestic and global markets? 

India’s ambition to strengthen domestic MedTech capabilities strongly resonates with our belief that there is no Viksit Bharat without Viksit Health. For us, the starting point has always been the same: healthcare must be easy to access, affordable to experience, and comfortable for every patient, no matter where they live. 

This philosophy comes alive in our growing portfolio of India-designed, Indiamanufactured innovations. The recently launched SIGNA™ Prime Elite, built at our PLI-supported Medical Device Manufacturing facility, is the latest addition to our “Made in India” lineup. It stands alongside innovations like the Revolution Aspire CT, conceptualised and manufactured entirely in India to deliver reliable performance even in constrained care environments, supporting consistent diagnostic outcomes across locations, including smaller cities. 

For us, localisation has always meant far more than local assembly. It spans the full value chain, including indigenous R&D, engineering excellence, supply-chain localisation, and India-based product design. With over 35 years of designing and manufacturing in the country and four advanced manufacturing sites, we have been long-standing partners in India’s MedTech journey. A cornerstone of this work is HTCI, the Healthcare Technology Centre India, our largest R&D centre, globally. HTCI has consistently contributed to healthcare innovation by developing technologies in India, for India and the world. We continue to invest heavily in expanding local manufacturing capabilities and building resilient domestic supply chains. This includes upwards of $4B invested in R&D and manufacturing in India since our inception, and an additional over $1B committed toward manufacturing output and local R&D over the next five years (announced in 2024). These sustained investments, along with collaborations with institutions such as AIIMS, research organisations, and startups, are strengthening India’s position as a global MedTech hub. 

As India moves toward deeper domestic value addition and greater selfreliance in MedTech, Wipro GE HealthCare remains committed to accelerating indigenous R&D, strengthening local supply chains, so that the technologies built here continue to elevate care, both at home and across global healthcare systems. 

As India moves toward national AI governance frameworks and sectorspecific guidelines for Medtech, how is Wipro GE HealthCare embedding responsible AI, data security, and clinical transparency principles across its innovation and product development pipeline? 

As India moves toward national AI governance frameworks, Wipro GE Healthcare approaches AI across its innovations with a clear principle: AI in healthcare is a responsibility as much as an innovation. Our Responsible AI framework guides how every solution is designed, validated, and deployed, ensuring it is safe, clinically reliable, and built for real world use. 

We embed responsible AI across the entire product development pipeline. This includes designing systems that are safe and reliable within their intended clinical context, while ensuring strong data security and resiliency to protect sensitive healthcare data.1 Clinicians also need clarity on how AI works, which is why we prioritise transparency, accountability, and explainability so they understand how AIgenerated insights are produced. Equally important is our commitment to privacy and fairness. We build AI systems that safeguard patient autonomy and actively work to minimise harmful bias, ensuring that AI expands access to quality care rather than widening disparities. 

As India pushes for greater self-reliance in healthcare, how is Wipro GE HealthCare strengthening partnerships across government, hospitals, and academia to support the country’s Make in India and tech leadership aspirations? 

As India pushes for greater self-reliance in healthcare, Wipro GE HealthCare continues to strengthen partnerships across government, hospitals, and academia with a singular purpose: to close critical gaps, scale innovation, and deliver impact where it matters most – patient care. Our collaboration-driven approach is grounded in the belief that India’s healthcare transformation must be built with India, in India, and for India.

With the largest installation base in the country, across 22 states and supporting thousands of patients every day, we work closely with public and private health systems to ensure that technology is accessible, available, and designed around the realities of care delivery in India. But partnerships, for us, go much deeper than deployment. They extend into co-creation, research, and capabilitybuilding, because advancing India’s MedTech ecosystem requires shared knowledge, shared learning, and shared innovation. 

A key pillar of this approach is our commitment to strengthening collaborations that advance research and innovation. This includes the AI Health Innovations Hub at AIIMS, backed by an investment of nearly $1 million over five years, which is focused on accelerating the development of AI-enabled healthcare solutions across key clinical areas. In oncology, our Cancer Research & Innovation Center, developed in partnership with a leading cancer institute in Mumbai, is dedicated to advancing research and improving access to cutting-edge cancer care technologies. 

Reference: GE HealthCare website – Responsible AI in Healthcare: From theory to practice