Home / News / Indian medical textiles sector provides good scope for entrepreneurs

Indian medical textiles sector provides good scope for entrepreneurs

22 Mar '13

2 min read

Inviting youngsters with entrepreneurial aspirations to venture in to the medical textile industry, a seminar held at the Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association (MADITSSIA) premises tried to brief youth on ways of penetrating in the Rs. 37 billion industry with knowledge of government assistance, procurement of machinery and use of human resources, The Hindu reported.

Sutures, sanitary napkins, bandages and diapers are some of the key products that the medical textile industry produces.

Inaugurating the seminar jointly organized by MADITSSIA; office of the Textile Commissioner, Mumbai; and the South India Textile Research Association (SITRA), Rohini Sridhar, Chief Operating Officer and Director, Medical Services, Apollo Hospital said there is huge growth potential in the medical textile sector, which so far has remained dominated by imports.

There is good scope for local entrepreneurs to venture and grow in this sector, forming a part of the healthcare sector. More so because even the recession has not had any impact on the healthcare industry, as hospitals continue to remain occupied with patients due to outburst of one after another epidemic, she added.

MADITSSIA President VS Manimaran also tried to encourage the prospective entrepreneurs by saying that selling of goods shall not be a concern, as all public sector enterprises have been instructed by the Centre to buy at least 20 percent of their medical textile requirement from micro, small and medium enterprises.

Those not really eager to invest in machinery even have the option of accepting job orders and fulfilling them with the help of SITRA, he added.

Appreciating India's ability to efficiently manage the sector, unlike the US, which has largely failed in controlling the costs, Ms. Sridhar said a by-pass surgery that used to cost around Rs. 100,000 in India around 15 years back, even today costs the same.

She said it would highly delight her to use suture material produced in Madurai.

Also, she added that the rise in hospitalization expenses in the country is not because of the medical procedures but due to burgeoning cost of technology.

Technicaltextile News Desk - India