The India economic boom has been characterized by a few sectors, which have been front-runners, and a few which have benefited from it. One such sector is Healthcare. The striking feature about the Indian Healthcare sector is that it has the potential to grow at a much faster rate in the foreseeable future and shall present new ‘sectors of opportunity’
Within healthcare, which shall emerge as growth drivers. Increasing participation by the private sector in healthcare services is stimulating change in the Indian healthcare industry. Both the government and private sector provide healthcare in India, but patients increasingly turn to private hospitals and clinics for quality treatment and better facilities.

Indian Healthcare sector has seen progressive increase in investments in healthcare infrastructure and facilities, especially hi-tech medical devices. In 2004, medical equipment and supplies contributed a significant $ 1263 Mn to the overall HealthCare Industry. Demand for medical equipments is rising annually at an impressive rate of 13-16 %.

The global medical devices market is estimated to be USD196.65 billion in 2006 which has grown at a CAGR of 4.5% during the five year period 2001-05. Indian medical devices and equipment market was estimated for USD1318m in 2005 with a growth of 4.6% over previous year. Market for medical supplies and disposables is dominated by the domestic manufacturers, whereas importers dominate the costly and high end medical equipments.

Medical infrastructure forms the largest portion of the healthcare pie. As per our analysis the current (2006) bed per thousand population ratio for India stands at 1.03 as against an average 4.3 of comparable countries like China, Korea and Thailand (2002 data). (Source FICCI Health services
As super specialization becomes a norm in the Indian corporate healthcare industry and companies pump in big money, the medical equipment industry is set for boom time. Indian corporate hospitals are now acquiring state-of-the-art medical equipment. They spend about 35% of their total investment to get the best equipment.
 
According to an A T Kearney study, private sector will pump in about Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 40,000 crore in the healthcare sector in the next 5-6 years. Philips Medical Systems, senior director and business head (India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal), Anjan Bose adds, "With the healthcare delivery boom, the Rs 2,500 medical equipment industry including small devices will grow between 15-20 % in 1-2 years time from the current 10%." (Source The Economic Times, April 6, 2007)