GE will provide a grant of Rs 75 lakh to HTIC towards R&D of these disruptive solutions that can benefit all emerging markets.

Commenting on the partnership, Ms Terri Bresenham, president & CEO, GE Healthcare, South Asia, said, "We at GE Healthcare are at work for a healthier India through development of innovative and affordable technology solutions. Accelerating innovation for affordable healthcare requires an ecosystem of partners and collaborative efforts by all stakeholders."

The collaboration will encourage open innovation and leverage co-creation of solutions with the involvement of multiple stakeholders such as academia, start-ups, governments, NGOs and clinicians to achieve these goals.

"IIT Madras is proud that HTIC is partnering with GE healthcare to address the challenges of unmet healthcare needs in India and other similar emerging economies. We need to take a completely new approach in screening, diagnosis and treatment in order to make healthcare affordable and universally accessible", said Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi, director, IIT Madras.

The healthcare solutions is said to address mother & child health, cancer and cardiac diseases.

Ms Bresenham further opined, "We firmly believe that the ideas and innovations developed by the next generation of researchers will be an added benefit to the healthcare ecosystem. This collaboration between HTIC and GE Healthcare will bring together start-up dynamism and corporate scalability to healthcare innovations while putting the unserved customer at the center of healthcare innovation".

According to GE's press statement, this partnership will combine HTIC's medical technology innovation ecosystem and GE Healthcare's expertise in bringing disruptive innovations to address healthcare's biggest challenges.

Dr Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, head, HTIC, IIT-Madras said, "We at HTIC believe that a collaborative ecosystem is essential for innovative and disruptive solutions for affordable and accessible healthcare. HTIC today anchors a dynamic med-tech innovation ecosystem of healthcare institutions, industry and government agencies in pursuit of delivering high impact healthcare technologies. We are pleased to join hands with GE healthcare. Together, we look forward to develop a pool of affordable and accessible technologies & solutions that create large impact in healthcare in India and the world."

"I was impressed with the work and caliber of HTIC. I am extremely delighted with this partnership and I'm excited about the potential impact of the joint work in the healthcare segment", said Mr Gopichand Katragadda, MD, John F Welch Technology Center.