Curing India's import-driven $5 bn medtech industry with niche devices

Bengaluru-based Blue Neem is developing devices in nephrology, radiology and gastroenterology as it aims to make India the manufacturing hub in this segment

The Indian medical devices market has traditionally been import-driven, despite the availability of inexpensive labour and local manufacturing advantages. 

When Vishnu Bhat was working at IT major Infosys in the 1990s and listening to the likes of N R Narayana Murthy talk about building the future of the nation and what every individual could mean for it, Bhat came to the conclusion that if he had to make a contribution, it had to be in the sunrise medical devices sector.

It was an underinvested, under-focussed and under-leveraged industry which never witnessed a boom like its sister, the pharmaceuticals industry.

Hence,