India Launches Maha MedTech Mission To Boost Healthcare Innovation

By siliconindia | Monday, 27 October 2025, 02:51 Hrs

India launches ‘MAHA-MedTech Mission’ led by ANRF with ICMR and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to boost innovation and reduce import dependency in healthcare technology.
Funding support between Rs 5-25 crore per project, extending up to Rs 50 crore for special cases, will be provided to startups, R&D centers, MSMEs, hospitals, and industry collaborations.
Focus areas include AI-based diagnostics, robotics, imaging, minimally invasive devices, and national health priorities like TB, cancer, and neonatal care, with added IP, regulatory, and mentorship support.

India has instituted the 'Mission for Advancement in High-Impact Areas (MAHA)- Medical Technology' programme, led by the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The programme is intended to strengthen India's medical-technology ecosystem by enhancing innovation, lessening reliance on costly imports and promoting equitable access to high-quality, affordable health technologies.

The mission is designed to grant significant funding to a wide range of organizations including academic and R&D centers, hospitals, startups, MSMEs, and MedTech industry participants, including collaborative efforts across these types. Projects chosen under the scheme will be granted milestone-based financial support of between Rs 5 crore to Rs 25 crore per project, with the scope for up to Rs 50 crore in special cases.

The effort outlines specific goals: to create public-health value through enabling technologies that target priority disease-spaces and increase safe, high-quality care; to make care more affordable and accessible through cost-reducing innovations; and to increase self-sufficiency and competitiveness through local MedTech creation, production and greater industry-academia collaboration.

The mission scope is intentionally wide-ranging, covering a broad range of innovative medical-device and in-vitro-diagnostic technologies. These include equipment and major sub-components, implants, assistive and surgical devices, consumables, software-based solutions, and frontier technologies like advanced diagnostic imaging, minimally-invasive interventions, point-of-care molecular diagnostics, AI/ML-based platforms, robotics and others.

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Projects related to national health priorities such as tuberculosis, cancer, neonatal health and primary health care are solicited specifically. Apart from finance, the mission offers support enablers: schemes like Patent Mitra (for protection of IP and technology transfer), MedTech Mitra (providing regulatory support and clearances), a Clinical Trial Network (for validation and evidence generation), and mentorship from industry professionals.

The application process is a two-step workflow. Initially, the concept notes will be received from 15 September to 7 November 2025 through the ANRF portal. Shortlisted projects will be invited during December 2025 to provide full proposals for further assessment.

In doing so, India aims to establish a sustainable medical-technology innovation, manufacturing and deployment ecosystem capable of building domestic industry, enhancing health-system capacities and providing affordable solutions at scale.