Identifying export markets for Indian medical devices

Purpose: Medical device industry in India is a niche sector with few key players but it possesses huge potential for both domestic and international trade. In recent years, a number of regulatory relaxations have been provided to medical device manufacturers in India to enhance production and further trade especially exports. Though the industry is highly dependent on imports, the purpose of this paper is to identify key medical devices using the revealed comparative advantage, which can be exported from India by identifying new markets. Design/methodology/approach: For the selected medical devices, India’s exports to the world and the newly identified markets are forecasted using the autoregressive integrated moving average model of regression. Findings: It is seen that three major medical devices emerge to be the ones where India has the capacity and potential to manufacture and export. These medical devices are electro-cardiographs, magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and oscilloscopes and oscillographs being exported to the USA, Australia; China and the USA, respectively, which is rising in recent years. Research limitations/implications: As the forecasted values indicate that there is an increasing potential in exports from India to the world of the selected medical devices, there is an urgent need to develop this industry and enhance exports from India. Very few studies have been carried out to examine and forecast exports from specific sectors or industries which is the need of the hour now. Originality/value: The paper also provides suggestions to exporters and policymakers on leveraging the future export potential of selected medical devices.