Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology (DST) said that pandemic COVID-19 has shown that there are many challenges on the horizon, but there are opportunities also and India could be a producer for globe in healthcare innovation field if all the stakeholders work together seamlessly for common purpose and complement each other’s efforts.

The DST secretary was speaking in a two-day conference on “Taking healthcare innovation to the global stage in new world order”.

“Something extraordinary has happened during the pandemic COVID-19. Before the pandemic, we were dependent on import of ventilators and other healthcare equipments, but within a month, we were able to produce world-class ventilators and other healthcare items at half the price. We were able to do this because all the stakeholders worked together on a war footing with speed and scale, and there was a good pull of government, academia, industry, and market,” Prof. Sharma said.

Stressing that science and technology is the strongest pillar in healthcare innovation, he talked about the success story of 70 startups, which got support from DST for innovations to fight COVID-19. He said that Aatm Nirbhar Bharat does not refer only to manufacturing and duplicating products, but “it is also about creation of quality relevant products of global quality and standards and best of everything at right price by providing solution and collaboration with global leaders.”

“Clinicians, basic scientists, applied scientists, engineers, people from software and even people who are going to use these devices need to work together seamlessly for common purpose by connecting entire ecosystem end-to-end to make India a force in global healthcare innovation,” Prof. Sharma said.