Career in Indian Medical Devices Industry post covid 19: Promising or Discouraging?
Tags: Healthcare, Medicine, India, Healthcare Technology, Doctors

The fourth largest market in Asia and among the top twenty markets for Medical Devices in the world, India is currently at 11billion USD while anticipating growing in market size up to 50 billion USD by 2025. Reasonably one would bet on pursuing a promising career in this domain for the future. In this brief article we will find out if this narrative is accurate in India.

Indian Medical Devices industry encompasses MNCs like Medtronic, Becton Dickinson, Philips, Siemens Healthineers to Indian MNCs like Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices Limited, Trivitron, Trans Asia, Meril to name a few and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) growing at an unprecedented scale. 70 % of the Devices which are high end equipment for the Healthcare sector are imported by India hindering the growth of domestic medical devices’ manufacturers. Courtesy Covid 19 and rising tensions between India and China, the government of India has offered two optimistic Schemes: PLI (Production Linked Incentive Scheme) and Promotion of Medical Device Parks scheme. Further the Government has sanctioned 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) for the Medical Devices Industry. An inflow of FDI into the country is expected to spur research and development (R&D) activities with manufacturing innovations.

The Career that this vital sector provides can broadly be classified as Skilled Labor jobs and Professional jobs. Government data from ASI (Annual Survey of Industries) panel indicate that 31% of the total work force in the Medical Devices industry are skilled workers but what’s prominent from the statistics is that the low capital per labor (capital intensity), dropping over the years. The sample size of course was not very impressive, but if we were to map the same trend onto Professionals in the Medical Devices industry one cannot help but notice a similarity in pattern. In other words, both Skilled labors and Professionals such as employees working in R&D, sales, marketing, validation and quality control are surplus these days.

Capital Intensity (K/L) = Total Expenditure / Labor Cost (Source: Article)

So, where does this bring us to if we are already skeptical about pursuing a career in this grand industry that helps change lives through their work. Well despite unfavorable regulations, poor infrastructure and an abundance of talented workers that ironically depreciate the value of talent India will inevitably have to grow into a 50 billion USD market in order to fill up the vacuum. And yes, we will need more Engineers for R&D as much as Sales and Business Development professionals or Marketing teams. As you may or may not have noticed the value for professional degrees have receded drastically calling out for talent through unique skills that can only be honed through hands on experiences in that field. Actually, this has always been the trend but especially these days relevant skills and work experience will help you stand out and ahead of that low capital intensity curve. That being said, yes! There is hope for a promising career in the Indian Medical Devices Industry in the years to come.

References:

1) Invest India (Govt. of India initiative)

2) Medical Devices Manufacturing in India — Market Structure, Import Intensity and Regulatory Mechanismsby Pritam Datta

3) Economic Times