IIT Kharagpur hub facilitates 20+ affordable healthcare technology transfers

A healthcare technology hub at IIT Kharagpur has completed its initial government-funded period, with a focus on developing affordable medical technologies and taking them to underserved communities. The hub, set up with support from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), provides laboratories, technical support and other resources to startups, small businesses and individual innovators working on healthcare products, the institute said in a statement on Saturday.

The sustainable phase of the Common Research and Technology Development Hub (CRTDH) on affordable healthcare was inaugurated here on Saturday by DSIR Secretary and CSIR Director General N Kalaiselvi in the presence of IIT Kharagpur Director Prof Suman Chakraborty. Set up in 2019, the hub has so far facilitated more than 20 technology transfers, with several affordable medical technologies moving towards commercial production, the statement said.

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Initial government-funded phase over

With government funding for its initial phase now over, the hub will meet its operating expenses through user fees, industry support and partnerships for transferring technologies to companies, it said. However, innovators will continue to have access to the infrastructure and technical assistance needed to develop their products. Kalaiselvi said the ability of a CRTDH to continue functioning independently after government grant support ends was an important indication of the success of the programme.

She stressed the need to strengthen India's own capacity to develop medical equipment and said such facilities could help startups, small businesses and individual innovators turn ideas into useful healthcare products. The initiative, she said, could also contribute to the broader goal of making India more self-reliant in medical technologies and the vision of a developed India by 2047.

Chakraborty said affordable healthcare was not simply about making medical equipment cheaper but about developing products that were reliable, easy to use and capable of working in difficult real-life conditions. He said the hub's long-term objective was to help move innovations from laboratories to the market and ultimately to people who needed them the most. The hub has also worked with healthcare and non-government organisations to establish rural health units, helping take affordable diagnostic technologies to villages and other areas where access to medical testing facilities remains limited.