Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said on Tuesday that India is one of the top five manufacturers of life-saving high-risk medical devices, but our devices are about one-third the price of those made by the other four nations.
According to Singh, Indian patients can access world-class medical devices at roughly one-fourth to one-third the price of their imported counterparts. The press release added that this reflects PM Modi’s Atmanirbhar vision of becoming self-reliant in both medical devices and medical management.
Singh pointed out that it was Prime Minister Modi who notified Medical Devices Rules in 2017 in compliance with the Global Harmonisation Task Force (GHTF) framework and to be in line with international best practices. As a result of the new rules, regulatory bottlenecks for making in India have been removed, facilitating ease of doing business and ensuring access to better medical devices for patient care and safety.
Investing in R&D for Ease of Living can only succeed if the private sector becomes a stakeholder and invests from the beginning, according to Jitendra Singh.
It was revealed by Singh to the medical fraternity that yesterday, the Finland Minister of Education and Culture, Petri Honkonen, who visited him, praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Government for the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the efforts of the government to ensure that vaccines are developed and that all Indians are vaccinated.
