Reemphasizing on the clarion call by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use the Make in India campaign to enable quality and far-reaching healthcare to all, key stakeholders shared the perspective from the eastern region. The Make in India campaign aims to have medical equipment manufactured in India itself to bring costs down and make healthcare reach the poorest of the poor all across the country

Aloke Mookherjea
Director, Woodlands Multi-Speciality Hospital Ltd, Kolkata

Why Make in India comes in the healthcare discussion for a simple reason that it is a policy of the government to improve healthcare, requiring more medicines at affordable costs being made in India. Healthcare is a focus area in Make in India. The path of medical equipment is only 0.3 per cent and I dont think it an obstacle, rather its an opportunities for investors to invest. The wellness market is going to be around one trillion Indian rupees having the innovation of latest diagnostics as essential part. GE, which is one of the largest engineering conglomerates in the world, had set up a base in India and started exporting equipment to all emerging markets at a very low cost. They have 10-15 per cent of the global market in the next five year.

Richa S Debgupta
Zonal Director, Fortis Healthcare Ltd, Kolkata

If we go to the cost structure, it largely encompasses the consumables related to operations. If we talk about setting up a hospital, medical technology constitutes a huge part. Around 40-50 per cent of your cost actually gets into medical technology. Ninety per cent of medical equipment is being imported and thats where the cost is hidden. Talking about Make in India, if we start to manufacture these medical equipment, the cost can go down significantly to the tune of 40-50 per cent and that can easily be passed on to patients. If we are able to implement it well, it is going to benefit all of us whether it is the providers or the patients.

Dr Srijon Mukherjee
Director, Calcutta Institute of Maxillofacial Surgery, and Chairman, Indian Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

We actually have all these products made in India, but their quality is not up to the mark. There is an urgent need to improve the quality and also need for developing medical equipment indigenously. Unfortunately, the quality of equipment are not good enough to use in the operation theatre.

Subhash C Mandal
Vice President and Chairman, Indian Pharmaceutical Association

The total healthcare cost of the world is 2.8 trillion USD and out of this Indias share is 30 Billion USD which consists of five per cent of the countrys GDP. But one estimate says that it should be 100 Billion USD by 2025 and its share should be 8-10 per cent of the GDP. Medical cost is a major component of the healthcare. Currently, India is producing around 1.26 lakh crore of medicines out of this India is exporting around 65,000 crore medicines to more than 200 countries globally. It is enough to prove that quality of Indian medicines is very good. You may know that 25 per cent of the total export of Indian medicines is to the US market. The US market norms are so stringent that it is really difficult to enter into the market. India has the largest number of US FDI complaint plants outside US and India is also filing maximum number of approval applications every year next to the US. This proves that India is producing quality medicines. That apart, India is manufacturing HIV medicines at minimal cost and supplying to the African countries where HIV is predominant.

Bhudeb Chakravarti
Honorary President, Centre for Development of Excellence

There are three areas where the government and people should focus on. The first being the process. We only talk about technology, outcome and how we can achieve things. But process constitutes a huge part of any healthcare institution. It is not only the process of doctors for OT, investigations, diagnostics, but you also have the process of procurement and how you will utilize the resources or how you are going to treat your patients. We must treat our patients as our clients and let us build them in a proper manner. We have maximum number of human resources in India, they are talented enough but unfortunately they are not available.

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