India to be Export Hub for Siemens Healthineers – Make in India

BENGALURU: Siemens Healthineers, the medical technology arm of Siemens, is looking to make India a hub for digital imaging devices and use it as an export base to countries in Latin America, Africa and China.

The company has invested nearly Rs 20 crore at the co-located manufacturing facility in Bengaluru along with the research and development (R&D) centre. Siemens has invested nearly Rs 2,500 crore in its R&D facility in the country during the past two decades.

Gerd Hoefner, president, Siemens Healthcare, said the company could look at exporting the imaging devices from the India facility once the local demand is met. “It does not necessarily mean that they are only for India. The idea is to sell it to China, Latin America and Africa,” said Hoefner.

He added that India’s strong software services industry has been one of the key reasons for it to set up the manufacturing hub here. “More than 50% of the software

R&D (people) are located in India. When it comes to software, India has many strengths,” he said, adding that over the years, the R&D centre at Bengaluru has grown into a digital hub for the company.

Siemens has started manufacturing Cios Fit, a mobile C-arm for digital imaging used by the healthcare sector, and sold 100 units in the local market so far.

Vivek Kanade, executive director, Siemens Healthcare, said the device was designed taking into account the specification of India for now, and once it is piloted and sold here, it will be made available for other global markets. “There is a fairly large order book here. We (will) first finish here, then it will come into the global price-book.”

The company’s facility in India now works on computed tomography (CT) systems based on trendsetting ‘Somatom go’ platform, which combines numerous software-led innovations.

Source: ET

Image Courtesy:Medtech Insight