India has taken a big strategic decision to hit two birds with one stone through medical diplomacy. Chinese companies will go through a loss of crores of dollars with India reducing its dependence on China for medical equipment, and importing a large portion of it from Japan. At the same time, India’s reliable ally, Japan, will get an opportunity for its companies to establish a stronghold in India.
The Centre is of the opinion that with this step, common patients will get the benefits of ultra-modern treatment equipment, because while the Chinese equipment are reasonable, but do not stand anywhere near the highest standards of the Japanese equipment. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the import of Chinese medical equipment to India increased by 57%. As per the Medical Technology Association of India, in the key category of medical equipment, import from China in 2020-21 was 327 million dollars (2681 crore rupees), which increased to 515 million dollars (4223 crore rupees).
Japan has shown its consent on fulfilling the needs of India. The final round of discussion regarding this step took place in the separate meeting of the Quad countries during the G20 meet.
