 "CII seeks incentives to promote medical equipment industry")
Access to components will enhance the local manufacturing capability and allow the industry to do significant value addition in finished medical equipment and device, it has said.
CII has submitted this and other recommendations to the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) earlier this month. Before implementation of Preferential Market Access Policy (PMA) in medical devices sector, there is a need to analyse manufacturing capabilities in the country.
"Without the availability of indigenous components, the PMA policy will not yield any results, as already seen in the electronics and IT hardware sector since the last four years. Before the implementation of PMA policy in medical devices and equipment sector, there is a need to properly analyse the components manufacturing capabilities in India," said Himanshu Baid, chairman of CII Medical Technology Department.
The industry body said the process of setting up manufacturing facilities needs to be streamlined by designating medical technology hubs all over the country with the right infrastructure in place to support complex medical technology manufacturing. It has also sought tax incentives, low cost funding, concessional power tariff and subsidised land prices for setting up medical devices industry in medical technology hubs.
CII has highlighted the factors such as capital investment, labour productivity that combined with approval delays make the manufacturing business a challenge in the country. "Access to low-cost capital through soft loans, subsidized land, and assured power and water supply combined with tax incentives and single-window clearance, would certainly build a stronger business case in India," said Pavan Choudary, Co-Chairman of the Department.