India is actively seeking foreign investments in the field of medical devices as it intends to shift focus towards domestic manufacturing amidst the COVID-19 crisis. India recently invited Japan to invest in its medical device industry and this is expected to help the country achieve its aim of building an international standard medical device industry, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s research reveals that the Indian medical devices market, which accounted for more than 13% of the Asia-Pacific medical devices market in 2019, is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.5% through 2025.

To give further impetus to the domestic medical equipment industry, India is making efforts to attract foreign investments by offering a conducive cost effective business environment. Imposing 5% cess on import of medical devices, launch of ‘Indian Certification for Medical Devices Scheme’ to promote quality audits, initiatives to start phased manufacturing program of medical devices and to create medical device parks are some of the measures taken by India to drive the domectic medical device industry.

Pratibha Thammanabhatla, Medical Devices Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The joint cooperation between India and Japan will be very beneficial as this would promote indigenous manufacturing of medical devices, reduce dependency on imported devices and stabilize the supply-chain.”

Japanese investments in India will accelerate the pace at which India is working to transform its medical device industry to achieve global standards by developing new technologies and solutions, and further drive the Indian medical devices market.

Ms. Thammanabhatla concludes: “With such partnerships, India can not only further boost its relationship with foreign countries and become self reliant by promoting domestic manufacturing but can also strengthen its export capacity.”