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Wipro GE Healthcare today shipped out the first Computed Tomography (CT) system designed and developed in India to a hospital in Pune.
“This is the first CT system to be entirely designed, developed and manufactured in India,” said Milan Rao, President and CEO, GE Healthcare, South Asia. He said that the system has been co-created by 500 different healthcare providers with 75 engineers at the technology centre dedicated to the project. GE has on hand 50 orders from across the country for the new machine.
Wipro GE Healthcare has adopted an all-round approach to growing its healthcare business in India. This includes local manufacturing, setting up GenWorks Health, a start-up company to sell products specifically in tier III cities, and also developing a skilled workforce to operate the products. The 26th product to roll out of the company’s factory in Bengaluru, the new machines cost less than ₹1 crore a piece, which is nearly 40 per cent lower than GE’s comparable product available in the country till now.
The features include 36 per cent lower radiation with a smart dose, 28 per cent lower life cycle cost and half the weight of a traditional machine.
Elaborating on the start-up established three months ago, Rao said, “Typically, healthcare is centred round the top 100 districts in India but we want to go to the lower 520 districts in the country, so we created GenWorks Healthcare, a start-up dedicated to establishing a presence in tier III towns.” He expects the company to bring in 20 per cent of its business in the short-term. To address issues of lack of availability of skilled manpower to operate the sophisticated machines in smaller towns, the company has set up a skill development business late last year to train new technicians as well as upgrade existing skills.
“We have signed up partners for the education business in Delhi, Greater Noida, Pune and Thane,” Rao said. With 11 such centres currently signed up for, Wipro GE plans on setting up around 30 such centres across India and train 100,000 people over the next five years.
The company a 51:49 JV between GE and Wipro has invested around $200 million in India over the last 25 years, and exported $2.5 billion worth of machines.
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