Innovate From Telangana For World: Revanth

At the APAC Biodesign Innovation Summit 2025, organised by AIM (AI and MedTech) Foundation at AIG Hospitals on Sunday, the Chief Minister unveiled the vision document ‘Innovations for Bharat: The BioDesign Blueprint’.

"For many years our best minds have been solving problems for other countries. The time has come when we must use our intelligence for helping our own people," he said.

Promising the government's support as a "proactive partner" to the vision of biodesign, the Chief Minister said that medical data would be shared with research institutes but with "strict data privacy". "We will connect you to academic institutions, research, innovations, innovation bodies, skill universities and corporations," he said.

The Chief Minister reiterated the vision of Telangana Rising and the aspiration of becoming the $3 trillion economy by 2047.

"By 2034, we will become a $1-trillion economy. By 2047, when India turns 100, Telangana will become a $3-trillion economy. Telangana is a hub for India's life sciences, medical devices and technology. We rose from manufacturing to innovation in this vertical. We established India's largest dedicated medical devices park at Sultanpur, which has the best infrastructure for research, prototyping, testing and manufacturing. More than 60 companies are already operating there, including global majors and domestic leaders," the Chief Minister said.

"The whole idea of biodesign is to create opportunities so that our patients, especially those from lower income groups, those staying in the rural area, get equitable healthcare. We've already started using high-end technologies in areas around Hyderabad by bringing down the cost of medicine," said Dr D. Nageshwar Reddy, chairman of AIG Hospitals.

The event saw many interesting innovations from Singapore, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, US, Ireland and Israel.

Dr David Grayden from University of Melbourne, Australia, presented the case of an 'Endovascular Neural Interface' that can help people with motor disabilities to navigate a computer screen with their brain. He showed videos of patients in the US actually using the interface to call their relatives or type messages. "With this, you are directly competing with Elon Musk's Neuralink!" remarked Dr Reddy after his presentation.

“Biodesign is a need-driven health technology innovation framework, an evolved form of design thinking that insists on deeply understanding problems before solving them," said Dr Anurag Mairal, Mussallem Centre for Biodesign, Stanford University.

"Born at Stanford 25 years ago, it came to India in 2007 through a collaboration with DBT, AIIMS and IIT Delhi, and since then has trained thousands of innovators, creating technologies that impact millions of lives,” he explained.

India, he said, had 10,000 health-tech start-ups, making it the third or fourth largest ecosystem globally, yet still imported 80 per cent of its $10 billion med-tech spend. “The real potential lies in flipping this equation — building an $80 billion domestic industry within a decade," he said.

Dr Mairal shared examples of a neonatal foot-pedal resuscitator and 'Tricot' cardiovascular screening device that uses AI for processing images, to show how biodesign solutions, rooted in India’s needs, can transform care delivery.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Dr Mairal said, “We want our technology to reach ASHA workers and ANMs as they are the ones who know the needs of the people. Since health is a state subject, the lead can be taken up by state governments and not just by starting a pilot study in every state but at scale. States must create policy frameworks to procure proven technologies at scale. Telangana, already strong in pharma and vaccines, can lead in this field by engaging academia and healthcare institutions.”

“All we want is for them to procure at least three to five technologies every year and commit to that decision. In the absence of it, tech start-ups just remain stuck in their nascent stage or evolve into mid-size companies without benefitting people on ground," he said.

The summit also featured showcases of healthcare and life sciences innovations and thought-provoking panel discussions such as ‘From Lab to Lives: How Academia and Policy Translate Innovations for Patient Impact’ and ‘Women in BioDesign’. These sessions explored the role of academia, government and industry in accelerating innovation and highlighted how diversity and inclusivity strengthen the MedTech ecosystem.