The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology launched the first edition of the Medical Electronics Innovation Summit 2016 at IIT Powai in Mumbai. The Summit was inaugurated by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, P. P. Chaudhary, Minister of State, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology along with Sri Kamineni Srinivas, Minister for Health, Andhra Pradesh.

"According to an estimate, the demand for medical electronics devices was around USD 1 Bn in 2012 and is expected to reach USD 6.5 Bn by 2020. Our global share is only 2% and in the coming years, there will be greater demand for medical electronics in the country in coming years", said Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The key highlight of the Summit was signing of an MOU Signing between SAMEER (Society for Applied, Electronics Engineering & Research) and the Government of Andhra Pradesh, on conducting joint and comprehensive assessment of health technologies as identified starting with Dual Energy Linear Accelerator for cancer care development.

With India's medical electronics market growing to $11.7 billion by 2017, the Summit witnessed a panel discussion on the scope of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the healthcare sector, especially with opening up of 100% FDI for manufacturing of Medical devices in India last year.

"Government provides medical electronics devices the same financial incentives for medical electronics devices which it provides for development of IT and telecom equipment. As a result, incentives like Modified SIPS, Electronic Manufacturing Clusters, EDF are available for the units investing in medical electronics devices", said Union Minister Prasad.

The integrated healthcare model is an initiative by the Government of India to bring together all the aspects of the healthcare sector to improve the methodology of the system. Top professors, researchers and experts from various key institute and colleagues spoke about the process innovation in healthcare services developing a sustainable model for accessible and affordable service through innovation. The day ended with power topic on Capacity Building and Infrastructure Management for technology driven medical electronics in India.

"A major step taken by our Government was to allow 100% FDI through automatic route for manufacture of medical devices as early as January 2015. As a result of the incentives being offered by Government, several domestic and multinational companies have started their manufacturing activities in the country. These include GE, Philips, Wipro GE, Trivitron among others. We have received 7 proposals involving Rs 754 cr under MSIPS for medical electronics. However, when compared this investment with overall investment attracted under electronics manufacturing in other sectors like mobile manufacturing, LED, consumer electronics etc, this sector require more efforts", said Ravi Shankar Prasad .

MeitY, SAMEER and CDAC have also taken steps which will stimulate innovation in this sector. CDAC Trivandrum had developed a programmable digital hearing aid which could be offered at nearly one-tenth of market price (USD 100 as against USD 1000 in market) in 2012. Similarly, SAMEER Mumbai had developed a Linear Accelerator for radiation treatment of cancer patients. A Microwave Disinfectant has also been developed by SAMEER Mumabi.

"Medical electronics industry is undergoing transformation with the advent of Internet of Things. Wearables are emerging one of the fastest growing medical device segment. To support this effort, MeitY has, along with Nasscom, set up a Centre of Excellence at Bengaluru to provide an ecosystem of support for start-ups. One of the biggest concerns in medical electronics industry is the threat of cyber security. This area has been attracting the attention of global industry and turned out to be an opportunity for start-ups", said Union Minister.

The Conference also presented 5 start-up companies from the healthcare sector pitching in their idea for it's Start Up Pitch Deck to a 3-member jury panel which comprising of Aditya Nataraja, Manager, IIT Patna Incubation Center, Prof. Milind Atre, SINE, IIT Bombay and Neel Bhatia, Director - Innovation and IP Ecosystem Development, Intel Technology India.