The Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India, organized a stakeholder consultation workshop on August 9^th in New Delhi to discuss the schemes for strengthening the medical device industry. This meeting was chaired by Mr. Ravindra Pratap Singh, Joint Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India. The following challenges were discussed: the Indian medical devices industry needs to adopt world class quality standards in order to complete in the international market, there are high costs involved in clinical investigation and other processes, need for skilled human resources and the medical devices industry needs key components and specialized inputs which are not produced by general industry, hence often imported by medical device manufacturers. Department of Pharmaceuticals proposed the following schemes which are either under implementation or in the conceptualization stage:

1. Common facilities for medical device clusters
2. Capacity building and skill development in the medical devices sector
3. Marginal Investment Scheme for reducing import dependence
4. Scheme for quality upgradation and support or clinical investigation
5. Medical Device Promotion scheme

AMCHAM’s Medical Devices Committee was represented by Ms. Shobha Mishra Ghosh, Director & Head, Government Affairs & Policy India & South Asia, GE Healthcare and Ms. Elizabeth Jose, Director, AMCHAM. Members from other industry associations also participated in this stakeholder consultancy. Department of Pharmaceuticals officials requested participants to share comments, suggestions and inputs directly.