Different stake-holders, from hospitals to doctors, from NGOs to the Government bodies are joining hands to form a forum under the aegis of FICCI to promote indigenous designing and manufacturing of the devices.

The initiative piloted by global major US-based Texas Instruments has already got the support from the FICCI, industry captains and the authorities and the Medical Electronics Forum is expected to take shape in a few months time.

Besides giving a direction to the evolving market of medical devices in India, it would also work towards the goal of an `eco-system' where all stakeholders work hand-in-hand to churn out affordable and latest products, as per the demands by the customers.

``We import devices right now from countries like the US and Israel. But sitting in America, the expert may not know the needs of rural Indians. Besides, indigenous manufacturing will force the prices considerably down,'' said Sekhar Rao, the worldwide manager of Medical Electronics Solutions at Texas Instruments, Dallas. He has been pushing the idea for sometime now, as the highly lucrative Indian market remained scattered and aimless.

He said India had great potential in skills and opportunities, especially in producing complex boards, to emerge as a world major in the segment with a considerable scope for exports of the devices. From human resources to design houses, India had all the chances to emerge as a leading hub of manufacturing, he told Pharmabiz.

Under the proposed eco-system, the industry would collaborate with universities by giving curriculum help. Industry would identify and support the projects by the students to work on with a view to promote innovations. And successful projects by the students would be taken up by the industry.

``We have proved it successful by collaborating with over 600 universities to promote talents in semi-conductor area and thereby propelling them to come out with final products. We are already in talks with AIIMS and IIT, Delhi to support such ventures in the bio-medical engineering,'' he said.

The initiative has to come from within and the results must reach the rural people of India and for this goal, industry must work with the academia to manufacture the latest and quality devices for the health care system, he said.

The industry leaders and the authorities have accepted the idea as well. The plan to bring in regulatory control would help set a benchmark for the Indian industry at the global level, he felt.

The healthcare industry in India has made impressive strides in recent years from a US $ 20.6 billion industry in 2001 to expected figures of US $ 46.4 billion by 2012 including Pharma markets, government and private spending. It is further expected to grow by around 15 per cent a year for the next 6 years.