IIT Kharagpur's Healthcare Tech Hub Goes Self-Sustaining Model

The Sustainable Phase of the DSIR-CRTDH was inaugurated by Dr N. Kalaiselvi, Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and Director General (DSIR), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the statement from the Ministry of Science & Technology said.

"The transition of the CRTDH to a self-sustaining model marks an important milestone in strengthening industry–academia collaboration, technology translation, and innovation-led healthcare solutions, while ensuring the continued availability of shared research and technology development infrastructure," the statement noted.

Why this hub was set up in the first place: CRTDH at IIT Kharagpur was established in 2019 under DSIR sponsorship, motivated by a specific data point that shaped its design: at the time, over 80 per cent of India's medical technology was imported, driving up healthcare costs, while roughly 39 million people in India were estimated to fall below the poverty line every year because of health-related expenses. The hub was conceived alongside IIT Kharagpur's plans for a 400-bed superspecialty hospital on campus, with a mandate to help domestic MSMEs manufacture affordable medical devices instead of relying on costly imports, particularly for use in rural and underserved areas where over 45 per cent of India's rural jobs already sit within the MSME sector.

In practice, the hub's rural health units have made genuine (non-spurious) medicines available in areas where counterfeit drugs are otherwise sold unchecked, delivered basic physiotherapy services, run school and community health education drives, and supported local manufacturing of essentials such as sanitisers, face masks, oral rehydration salts and sanitary napkins. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CRTDH trained community health workers to produce masks and sanitisers locally and worked on technologies including rapid diagnostic kits and PPE for frontline health workers. It has also set up a Pathology and Imaging Lab in partnership with an NGO, using some in-house-developed diagnostic technology.

CRTDH has facilitated over 20 technology transfers, many already commercialised, and has partnered with clinical and non-governmental organisations to establish rural health units supporting the deployment of affordable healthcare technologies.

Kalaiselvi emphasised the role of DSIR and the network of CRTDHs in enabling MSMEs, start-ups and individual innovators to strengthen indigenous capability in medical technology. "The continued functioning of a CRTDH beyond the period of DSIR support demonstrates the intended outcome of the programme to serve industry and innovators in a self-sustaining mode," she said, adding that wider utilisation of these facilities would contribute to strengthening the country's indigenous technological capabilities and advancing self-reliance in medical device technologies.

Suman Chakraborty, Director, IIT Kharagpur, highlighted the importance of frugal innovation in addressing the constraints faced in real-world healthcare delivery. He said designing technologies for use in settings without sophisticated infrastructure, and by frontline health workers, requires engineering solutions that are robust and accessible.

The hub's broader operating model involves IIT Kharagpur departments developing healthcare technologies that can be licensed to MSMEs, or MSMEs bringing their own ideas to the facility; once lab testing, scientific validation and prototyping are complete, CRTDH takes projects through product-level development, selects and incubates MSME partners, and trains them through to successful commercialisation — including support for regulatory clearances such as CDSCO, DCGI, CE and BIS certification, which are typically among the hardest hurdles for smaller manufacturers to clear on their own.