EEPC India, the apex body of the engineering export organizations, and the National Institute of Design (NID) have joined together to promote and upgrade the designs and technology for the medical devices industry, enabling it to meet the emerging needs of the country's health sector, particularly in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic.

With a view to taking the innovative and superior designs to the implementation level, the MSME Ministry has approved seven incubation ideas for the health sector under a special government scheme, DK Singh, Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner (MSME) said. He was addressing a webinar at the launch of the EEPC India-NID Design Series. It has been titled as: Post COVID-19- Design Intervention for Medical Device Industry.  He said the first design series had been proposed for the medical sector.

''During this pandemic situation of COVID-19, the country is trying to tackle the situation to overcome this difficult phase. We are able to produce over two lakh PPE kits in a day to fight COVID-19. Medical devices have been one of the key import-dominant sectors in our country. Dependence on complex medical devices for critical care is technology centric and calls for a consistent focus on innovation and design,’' Singh said.

In his welcome address, Mahesh Desai, Chairman, EEPC India said his council is bringing together policymakers, researchers, designers and industry on a common platform to discuss the possibilities of design in the country in the wake of new and unexpected needs of healthcare facilities due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Praveen Nahar, Director, NID, said even in simple products like physiotherapy machines or ECG machines, design plays a very important role in bringing innovation and competitiveness. There are many examples of simple and contextual design improvements in such products that have transformed the way of doing business for Indian MSMEs.