Medical electronics market in India estimated to grow to $11.7bn by 2017

Medical electronics market in India is reportedly estimated to grow to 11.7 billion dollars by the next three years due to the country's burgeoning population, higher middle-class incomes, and increasing awareness about the benefits of healthcare delivery system.

According to Frost and Sullivan, the medical electronics market in India was valued at US 6.5 billion dollars in 2013 and is likely to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16 percent by 2017.

Total healthcare expenditure in India is nearly 4 percent of the GDP, which is less than half of countries like Australia, Brazil, the UK, and US and the government plans to increase its expenditure on healthcare from 1.2 percent to 2.5 percent of GDP.

According to Director of Automation and Electronics Practices at Frost and Sullivan, Niju V, medical devices in India need to be made for Indian operating conditions and a focused policy on medical devices factoring in all industry stakeholders including technology developers, manufacturers, healthcare providers, insurance providers, and patient groups could give a big boost to the sector.

The firm further said that Indian medical electronics industry would shift towards developing miniaturized, multifunctional, ultra-low power, portable, and reduced cost devices that could be used for patient monitoring, imaging, implantable, therapeutic, and surgical requirements.

The wearable devices category, which is still a developing field in India, could potentially aid physicians to offer extended care outside the clinical environment.