Mumbai: Maharashtra could emerge as a global leader in healthcare innovation as the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) takes effect, drawing in billions of dollars of investment in the sector, said Jaykumar Rawal, Minister for Protocol, FDI, Diaspora Affairs & Agro-Marketing, Government of Maharashtra.
Speaking to ETHealthworld on the sidelines of the CII Hospital Tech 2026 Summit in Mumbai, Rawal said the state is working to connect Maharashtra’s healthcare and pharma companies with UK counterparts to bring in technology, innovation, and capital at scale.
Rawal said, “We all are quite excited about CETA, because we have a lot of technology, a lot of innovation, a lot of experience, and the finances also. We want to scale up in Maharashtra, and we need to connect the companies from Maharashtra to the companies in England. That is key.”
The minister said the healthcare segment in Maharashtra is one of the key sectors to benefit from the trade agreement and emerge as a global leader given its current standing as a hub for pharma, healthcare, and medical technology.
He added, “We have the whole ecosystem in Maharashtra. We have expert medics, we have the pharma industry, we have medical technology, and with global players coming in, we want the whole ecosystem to develop. Right now, the process from lab to patient takes many years, that should be cut short. That’s what we are working on,” Rawal said.
The India-UK FTA which came into effect on July 15, 2026, provides zero-duty access for nearly 99 per cent of Indian exports to the UK market.
The agreement removes tariffs on generic medicines and medical devices, including surgical instruments, diagnostic equipment, ECG machines, and X-ray systems making Indian products more cost-competitive in a market that remains India’s largest pharmaceutical export destination in Europe.
According to the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, the state presently contributes to 16 per cent of India’s medical device output and 22 per cent of the country’s medical devices export.
It houses four medical devices clusters in Ambarnath, Satpur, Sinner and Bhiwandi.
