The Union Cabinet has approved the National Medical Devices policy today, April 26. The government has six strategies to tap the potential of the medical devices sector with its implementation action plan.
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The policy is expected to help the medical devices sector grow from present $11 billion to $50 billion in the next five years.
The government had already approved the PLI scheme in medical devices, and it hopes to enhance domestic manufacturing with the National Medical Devices policy. This would also bring down the import dependence on such devices, which currently stands at 70-80 percent of the demand.
Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said that India’s medical device manufacturing sector has 1.5 percent share in the global market, and the government hopes to take this to 12 percent in the next 25 years. He said India will scale up the $11 billion market to $50 billion.
This will give a boost to the Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme and generate employment for the youth, besides reducing import dependency.
157 new nursing colleges
The Union Cabinet also approved the establishment of 157 new nursing colleges at a cost of Rs 1,570 crore in co-location with existing medical colleges.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya noted that there is a demand for BSc nursing courses as it can create employment opportunities.
Citing data, he noted that 40 percent of the nursing colleges in country were concentrated in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Kerala. As many as 13 states do not have nursing colleges.
The government has decided to develop 157 nursing colleges in states in association with the government medical colleges. Each nursing college will have 100 seats, and as a whole, 15,700 seats will be created.
The Centre will initially fund Rs 10 crore for this, and will add on as per the requirements according to the project plan. States can also add to the funding to enhance infrastructure, Mandaviya said.
