Made in India, For the World: How 4,000 New Factories Are Transforming Medical Devices

Made in India, For the World: How 4,000 New Factories Are Transforming Medical Devices

The Union Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers stated that India has licensed thousands of medical device manufacturing sites over the last five years. 

The official data provided by Union Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Anupriya Patel, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha shows that Gujarat leads with 738 licensed manufacturing sites, followed by Maharashtra with 721. Other major contributors are Delhi (291), Haryana (302), Tamil Nadu (346), Uttar Pradesh (346), Karnataka (262), Telangana (194), and Kerala (187). The states with the fewest licensed sites were Manipur and Jharkhand, each with three licensed sites during the 2021-2025 period. 

The government has made major efforts to promote the medical device industry, including providing financial assistance to help establish it. The efforts include the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for promoting domestic manufacturing of Medical Devices. This scheme has a budget of Rs 3,420 crore and a five-year performance-linked incentive period from FY2022-23 to FY2026-27. The companies selected under the scheme will be eligible for a financial incentive for additional sales of domestically manufactured medical devices in the anaesthesia, cardio-respiratory, imaging device, radiotherapy, and critical care and implant device segments, for a five-year period. As of September 2025, 22 greenfield projects have been commissioned, and production has started for 55 high-end medical devices, for which India has been highly dependent on imports. These products include linear accelerators, machines for mammograms and MRI, and CT scans, C-arm X-ray machines, and ultrasound machines. Under the scheme, cumulative eligible sales of Rs 12,344.37 crore have been made till September 2025, including export sales worth Rs 5,869.36 crore. 

The scheme for the Promotion of Medical Device Parks focuses on providing easy access to top-class, common frameworks to medical device units set up in medical device parks. This scheme contains three approved parks at an advanced stage of development in Noida, Ujjain, and Kanchipuram districts. The total cost is Rs 871.11 crore, with Central assistance of Rs 100 crore each for creating common frameworks, which improve competition in the industries and reduce production costs by enhancing resources and economies of scale.  Out of a total of Rs 300 crore for the three parks, Rs 180 crore has been released as of November 2025, and the civil construction of the parks was at the final stages. By the end of September 2025, 194 medical device manufacturers will have been allotted land in the parks covering 298.58 acres, and 34 units will have initiated construction of their plants. 

Additionally, the scheme was launched on 08.11.2024 with an investment of Rs 500 crore and focuses on strengthening the medical device industry by providing support in crucial areas such as skill development, clinical studies, framework development, manufacturing core elements, and industry promotion. This scheme also comprises other sub-schemes, such as the Marginal Investment Scheme to minimize dependence on imports, the Medical Device Clinical Studies Support Scheme, Capacity building and Skill Development for Medical Devices, standard amenities for the Medical Devices Clusters, and the Medical Device Promotion Scheme. 

Table 1: Number of Medical Device Manufacturing sites licensed during the period (2021-2025) in different States