ICMR selects 7 research centres to develop priority medical devices and diagnostics
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has selected seven research centres across leading Indian institutions to develop priority medical devices and diagnostic technologies. The selected institutions are the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) at Kharagpur, Delhi, Bombay, Kanpur and Madras, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore. Projects will span portable screening for primary healthcare, biomaterials, and technologies for eye and vascular diseases.
Each centre has been assigned specific focus areas. IIT Bombay, led by Dr Abhijit Majumder, will develop portable screening, monitoring and point-of-care medical technologies for primary healthcare. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, under Prof Gopal S Pillai, will work on healthcare technologies for ophthalmic and vascular diseases. IISc Bengaluru will focus on biomaterials and translational medical devices. IIT Kharagpur's PRAGATICAR, led by Prof Suman Chakraborty, will concentrate on frugal diagnostics, regenerative and personalised healthcare, artificial intelligence, digital health and advanced therapeutics. IIT Delhi's CAR-PATH, led by Prof Vivekanandan Perumal, will work on priority applied technologies for healthcare. IIT Kanpur, under Prof Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, will develop 10 priority healthcare products, while IIT Madras will host TARaNGaM, led by Prof Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam.
The initiative aims to accelerate development of affordable, accessible and indigenous healthcare technologies addressing unmet clinical needs. ICMR identified these priorities through an exercise involving clinicians from different healthcare settings, including tier-1, tier-2 and tier-3 cities, resulting in a curated list of around 100 priority medical device and diagnostic technologies.
