Healthcare sector in India to become $50 billion industry by 2025: Jitendra Singh

TheHealthcare sector in India is expected to grow to reach the size of $50 billion by the year 2025, union minister of state (independent charge) science and technology and earth sciences, Dr Jitendra Singh said on Wednesday.Addressing the 14th Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Global MedTech Summit titled “Seizing the Global Opportunity”, Singh said that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, healthcare has become more focused on innovation and technology over the past two years. About 80% of the healthcare system aims to increase investment in digital healthcare tools in the coming five years, he said.“Telemedicine is also expected to reach $5.5 billion by 2025. E-Sanjeevani, a ministry of health and family welfare conceived technical intervention, has enabled virtual doctor consultations and connected thousands of people living in remote parts of the country with doctors in major cities while sitting in the comfort of their own homes,” Singh said.“The prime objective of the government is to reduce import dependence from 80% to below 30% in next 10 years and ensure self-reliance quotient of 80% in med-tech through Make in India with SMART milestones,” he added.Singh said that India aims to achieve 10-12% of the global market share of the medical devices sector to arrive at a $100-300 billion industry, the government’s draft policy pegs, adding that the country will have about 50 clusters for faster clinical testing of medical devices to boost product development and innovation.“What is going to drive this sector forward are life expectancy, shift in disease burden, changes in preferences, growing middle class, increase in health insurance, medical support, infrastructure development and policy support and incentives,” he said.The minister said that India is already working towards establishing a global footprint by becoming the manufacturing hub and key exporter of medical devices worldwide, as this is an important objective of the ‘Make in India Campaign’, in which Indian medical devices sector has been identified as a sunrise segment.“This recognition has given the industry the much-needed impetus to deepen its prowess in the value chain across device-segments ranging from low-tech segment to more sophisticated categories of devices,” he said.