India to manufacture low-cost medical devices: Gadkari

PTI, Jan 10, 2020, 9:58 AM IST

Nagpur: Union MSME minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said his department plans to set up five parks to manufacture low-cost medical devices in the country.

He also informed about a project being carried out under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to manufacture ‘Cochlear implant’ equipment.

The equipment will be available at 50 per cent of its cost to people soon, Gadkari said at the annual conference of the Association of Otolaryngologists of India here.

His Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) ministry is working on manufacturing low-cost medical devices in the country itself so that poor people could benefit out of it.

The ministry will be setting up five parks to manufacture medical devices in India, out of which one has already started in Vishakapatnam, Gadkari said.

“Similarly, MRI machine, which used to cost Rs 6.50 crore apiece, is now available for Rs 58 lakh after we started manufacturing it,” he said.

In 2019, the country had imported medical devices worth Rs 38,837.28 crore.