The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the National Medical Devices Policy, 2023. It aims to capture 10 to 12 per cent share of the growing global pharmaceutical business in the next 25 years from 1.5 per cent now. The policy is expected to grow the medical devices sector from the current $11 billion (Rs 90,000 crore) to $50 billion (Rs 4.5 lakh crore) by 2030. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that the policy has been made keeping in mind that an overall policy framework can be prepared and it can accelerate the growth of this sector. Various departments of the government make programmatic interventions for this sector, while The current policy aims to present a holistic framework in this sector in a coordinated manner. Government of India has already initiated PLI scheme for medical devices. Also, incentives are being given to set up 4 Medical Equipment Parks in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. A total of 26 projects have been approved so far under the PLI scheme for medical devices, with a total investment commitment of Rs 1,206 crore and an investment target of Rs 714 crore has been achieved so far. “A total of 14 projects are producing 37 products under the PLI scheme and have set up in-house plants of quality medical devices,” it said in a statement. These include the plant’s production of Linear Accelerator, MRI Scan, CT Scan, Mammogram, C-arm, MRI Coil, High End X-ray Tube etc. And the production of 12 products will start in the near future. Recently, out of total 26 projects, 5 projects have been approved. The Cabinet also approved the proposal to open 157 Government Nursing Colleges in the country with an outlay of Rs 1,570 crore. Mandaviya informed that under this, 157 government nursing colleges will be opened in the country and these will be completed in the next 24 months. So far, plots have been allotted to 59 entrepreneurs in the Medical Device Park being built in the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YIDA) in the National Capital Region. The country’s renowned medical device companies have expressed their desire to set up their units in this park, which is being set up on 350 acres of land in Sector 28 of Yida. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′; n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0); s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’, ‘ fbq(‘init’, ‘550264998751686’); fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);