"It is highly disheartening that against Industry’s expectations and assurance by the various Govt. Departments, the government has not announced any measures to help end the 80-85% import dependence forced upon India and an ever-increasing import bill of over Rs 63,200 crore. 

It is very painful to see the plight of domestic industry players shutting shop as the local industry cannot compete with cheaper Chinese imports.

Imports of Medical Devices from China went up by nearly 50% last year from Rs 9000 crore to Rs 15000 crore on account of low duties and convenience to import. These are the same domestic manufacturers, when imports got disrupted during COVID-19 crisis, the Govt. relied heavily on to meet the rising demand of essential Covid items for the country pushing the Indian medical devices sector to become self-reliant. 

We had been hoping that this will be a Make in India push budget for an Atmanirbhar Bharat but we, The Indian Medical Device Industry are disheartened not to hear any impactful announcements for encouraging Make in India of Medical Devices in India. 

The only positive announcement was plans for skilling of manpower for manufacturing of Medical Technologies."