UP fast emerging medical devices' manufacturing centre

Apex industry body Assocham on Monday said that Uttar Pradesh was fast emerging as a cost-effective manufacturing centre for medical and dental instruments.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) attributed the rise to significant availability of trained manpower including labourers and technicians.

"UP could emerge as a hub for medical devices manufacturing by 2020 if an incentive package by way of tax concessions was made available to the industry in the state," said D.S. Rawat, national secretary general of Assocham, while releasing a study titled 'Indian Medical Devices Industry: The way ahead,' at a press conference in Lucknow.

Presently, India's medical devices industry is primarily import driven as imports contribute almost 75 per cent of the market. So there is a significant opportunity for UP to develop domestic manufacturing capabilities by setting up green-field medical devices and equipment parks across the state, Rawat said.

With 33 factories in the medical and dental instruments and supplies sector operating in UP, the state has the second highest share of over 10 percent in the total 316 such factories under operation across India. Gujarat is at number one with an 18 per cent share, highlights the study.

The state also holds the second highest share of about 12 per cent and 25 per cent in terms of direct and indirect employment generated by medical and dental instrument factories in the country.

"With a turnover of over Rs.568 crore, the medical and dental equipment sector in UP acquired the third highest share of about 11 per cent in a total output worth about Rs 5,300 crore generated by the industry across India after Karnataka (25 per cent share) and Haryana (22 per cent share)," the Assocham study stated.

The study is based on an analysis of the statewise distribution of manufacturers of medical and dental instruments and supplies in the country by the Assocham Economic Research Bureau based on data compiled as part of the Annual Survey of Industries 2011-12 conducted by the government of India.

Clocking a compounded annual growth rate of over 15 per cent, the import of medical devices and equipment in India is likely to cross the $4 billion mark by 2018-19 from about $2.3 billion in 2013-14.

The growth of medical goods' imports is expected to continue as a result of the burgeoning middle class, growing medical tourism industry, swelling private sector healthcare investment, aging population and heightened government commitment to provide health services to the rural population, the study noted.