Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on May 12, 2020, made a clarion call for an ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ – a self-reliant India to rejuvenate our industries.
While elucidating that the definition of self-reliance has undergone a change in the globalised world, the Prime Minister emphasised that India’s culture considers the world as one family and progress and contribution in India is a part of contribution and progress in the whole world. He also revealed the financial stimuli the government had planned to revive the businesses.
Echoing the sentiments of the PM, Piyush Goyal, Commerce & Industry Minister, GoI highlighted that India must build its confidence and competency in producing quality products in a cost-competitive manner that can compete globally.
Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister, GoI also stated that ‘self-reliant India’ did not imply ‘isolationism or becoming exclusionist’, and underlined the approach to attaining self-reliance by building capacities, skilling people and competing globally by acquiring these strengths.
In this statement, Pavan Choudary, Chairman and Director General, MTaI shares what ‘self-reliance’ means for the MedTech industry. He says, “We are fully aligned with the PM’s vision for a self-reliant India. After due reflection, MTaI has come to the view that Aatma Nirbharta in medical technology sector would be achieved when we can make competitive products in India, when people of India can be treated in India without having to travel abroad and without having to spend precious foreign exchange, when R&D flourishes to create innovative solutions and when every Indian healthcare worker gets trained as well as his best global counterpart.”