In this interview on the Food Medicine and Life channel, Dr. Priti Nanda Sibal talks with veteran medical‑device industry leader Sunil Khurana about how the COVID‑19 pandemic is reshaping the Indian medical‑device market and the pressures it places on business owners. Khurana outlines the massive gap between India’s 15‑16% share of the population and its mere 1.5% share of the global $600 billion medical‑device market, highlighting a huge growth opportunity. He explains which device categories are seeing surge demand – PPE, home oxygen generators, pulse‑oximeters, digital radiography (DR) and ventilators – and why high‑end equipment like MRI or PET‑CT remains out of reach during the crisis. The conversation then shifts to the human side: business owners report heightened anxiety, cash‑flow strain, and difficulty paying staff. Khurana advises leaders to stay calm, limit exposure to negative news, cut unnecessary costs, and invest in up‑skilling employees through digital training and webinars. He stresses the importance of self‑care for leaders, noting that stress worsens health markers such as blood sugar and blood pressure. Finally, Khurana urges Indian manufacturers to leverage the government’s “Make‑in‑India” and Atmanirbhar initiatives, reducing dependence on Chinese imports and building domestic capacity over the next 5‑10 years. The interview concludes with a hopeful outlook that, once vaccination stabilises the pandemic, the sector will rebound strongly.
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Good morning everybody and welcome to the Food Medicine and Life channel again. Today we have with us a very, very experienced, business savvy person with us who needs actually no introduction, but I'll tell you a few things about him. We have Mr. Sunil Khurana with us who brings with himself more than 37 years of experience in health medical devices, and I have known him personally for 25 years. What I will want to say is, if you have any problem and if you go to him, you will get a solution which will work for you. Let's hear from Mr. Khurana on what he has to say for businesses, especially in medical devices in COVID times. Welcome, Mr. Khurana, and thanks for taking out your time. So how do you see COVID impacting business in medical devices, sir?
Thank you so much, Dr. Preeti. And let me first say about the overall healthcare business. And medical device will become a part of that. So if you look at the overall, today we all are talking about the medical professionals who are helping everyone on the COVID side. When this pandemic has come, everybody is looking up to them. So there is a lot of stressful life they all are leading at this point in time. I can understand the challenges they have and how they are trying to manage their home as well as the office, which is their clinic and hospitals. So it's a difficult time, there is no doubt about it. And when it is a healthcare delivery site, which is the hospitals and nursing homes and clinics, we form a very important, you know, part of that whole activity because without medical devices you will not be able to perform many things. So that is where medical devices is a lot about. Now when it comes to medical device, medical device is a very, very tech business, and globally this is something like $600 billion. And you'll be surprised that India is only 9 billion. So when we say 9 billion, it means it's only 1.5% of the global business, whereas India population is something like 15-16%. So that itself shows that India has a great opportunity in this side, and this can multiply if all the parities are same. We can really do extremely well. So that's the one, one point. And as the number of beds improves, you know, you will see more and more medical devices coming. Now, medical device is a very generic term. I mean, even a PPE or a normal syringe, you know, suture, even that is treated as a medical device. And when you look at the MRIs and mammographies and CT scanners, you know, all those high-end machines like, uh, linear accelerators and all are also medical devices. So we have to actually now segregate and understand that what medical devices we are talking with respect to COVID. Everybody has heard the ventilator now. I don't think that even my father, who's close to 90, he was asking me, are you in the ventilator business? Because he has heard a lot about that ventilator is doing extremely well. But ventilator is the last step. I mean, when 1% patient or, you know, 1.5% patients who are detected, and out of that detected people, only 1.5% finally will probably end up going to that product. Before that, there are a lot of products which are being used today. Even your PPEs are doing extremely well now. Even the oxygen generator, I mean, the home product oxygen generator is doing extremely good job. Look at the pulse oximeter. There is a huge dip because there is a function of the lung which gets impacted with the COVID and in that process The oxygen, if it is not going sufficient through the blood vessels, the overall oxygen saturation dips, right? That's a very critical function which happens in the COVID patient. So pulse oximeter is another device, especially the finger pulse at home users is picking up extremely well. X-ray is doing very well because X-ray is the one product, especially the DR, digital radiography products, mobile machines. At a very low dose, you can expose at and you can have a number of shots, probably, you know, every, every day, second day, you can just see the COVID patient, how they're progressing. And this is a great device which can tell you. So these are the products doing well. Hence, what I want to just sum it up here is that, you know, when you have a patient who's on the bed, you're also seeing their patient monitoring, you know, all the vitals you're seeing through them. So there are some areas which are doing well, not all. And one has to understand that at this point in time, nobody is going to put up a cyclotron and PET CT because that's a long-drawn process and that may not be viable today, or MRIs and all of that. We also know that overall number of patients have come down, and when patients have come down, it is, it is a little challenging time. And come down does not mean that there are no patients, right? They don't want to go to the hospital with the fear of infection. That's, that's the only thing I can say, right?
So thank you, Mr. Khurana, and it was an eye-opener knowing that 15-16% of the population, but we only have 1.5% of the market share of devices, right? So what I am seeing in my practice, sir, is that, you know, a lot of patients are coming either with very high sugar levels or very high stress levels. And when I ask them what is the reason of their fear, anxiety, and stress, 90% of the patients have said to me, we don't know how to do business, how to earn enough to be able to pay salaries to our teams. And on the other side, I also was reading a study which MIT did in 2018, which said fake stories travel faster than the true stories. So do you think the environment around us is talking so much fake stories that, you know, like for example, whatever you just said, what I heard was there's an opportunity to innovate and resettle in the new space. What are your thoughts on this and what message you will want to give to these people?
So generally, you know, if you go to someone and whatever you expect from him or her, if you are okay with that, you don't talk anything. But if you're not happy, that message, negative message spirals a lot because, you know, you want to, you tend to react to them. So I feel that we should be calm at this point in time. I mean, we all understand that, you know, staying at home is important. And if you are staying at home, your business is taking impact. And there is a challenge for the industries to make the payments of the salaries and all of that. The challenge I fully understand. And that is where employees also understand. It is not that they don't understand, and things will get settled. What I want to tell on a very Industrials are fighters. I mean, we have been living even in very difficult conditions, and this phase of maybe a couple of months will also get over. Everyone should just stay quiet at this point in time because by having anxiety, you can only raise those, you know, blood sugars and BP and all of that, and not going to help actually. So we have to just understand it and, uh, don't tune too much to the news channel which is only talking about lot of challenges around you and, you know, do your other activity at home, be with family. I think that's a better way to look at it. But definitely business are taking some beatings, there is no doubt about it. I run a business and I understand this. The only thing is that how can you cut costs? So some unnecessary cost is what you need to cut and be very careful of that. And my view is that not only healthcare all the industries will come back. I mean, it is just a matter of 1 or 2 more quarters, but that 1 or 2 more quarters, the government will help a lot. So if those helps truly reach, I think those businesses also will get sustained.
Great. So I was reading a survey done by Goldman Sachs, Mr. Khurana, which said that 50% of business owners are going through stress, fear, and anxiety. Right? And at the same time, me being a functional medicine practitioner, I keep telling people, you can't pour out of an empty mug. So you— these business owners have to get into self-care to be able to keep themselves sound, so that when the opportunity, you know, businesses start evolving again, they are not led back because of the stress and anxiety they are doing today. So can you give any 3 important messages for business owners from your experience in which they can pass this next 1 or 2 quarters in a more sane and a peaceful state rather than a very extremely stressful, fear-oriented state?
Yeah, so see, what most people are doing in their business, let's now look at each business, You have people there. This is not without people, right? You have people there. So best utilization of people is today to raise their capability or competency. So this is one area through digital means a lot of people are doing, and they are imparting continuous trainings and messaging and all of that. And you know what I generally say, that there are levels: L1, L2, L3, L4, L5. Different functions have different mechanisms. Let's take some starting guys at L1, and someone who's really thorough expert at DRM trendy level is L5, and you want your team to be somewhere in the range of L3, L4, depending on their experience. So invest this time to raise the capability, because in our kind of method that we all the time keep running the business, don't force on these people. So this is one good opportunity. Second is that, you know, start trying to understand— a lot of webinars are happening, a lot of activities are happening. And you will get to know from many other your counterparts from the different industries what best practices they are doing. And there are many best practices they are doing which can— you can copy based on the type of industry you are in. So, you know, that's the second way. And third is that, you know, as a healthcare professional engaged into this space, I want to say that if you are not healthy and if you are not staying with the cool mind at this point in time, at the right time, you will not be able to react. So as the leaders, as the business owners, you got to take care of your health and stay tuned. That is what I can only say. This is the most deadliest thing happening at this point in time in the world. Nobody has ever witnessed this kind of thing. And what we know that, you know, something happened 100 years, those details as much as it is today, but This also will be addressed. Maybe a question of a couple of more months to get the vaccination. The moment vaccination is achieved, suddenly there will be a huge comfort all over, and then people will completely, you know, forget it. But for a year to year time, this is going to stay that we have to accept it and reduce your cost. For the businesses, most important is reduce your unnecessary cost and carry on, and government and other bodies are there to help you.
So well said, Mr. Khurana. And what I understand is that work on your employees, work on yourself, and just flow with the flow. So, mujhe a quote ya dari hai, man ke hare har hai, man ke jeete jeet. And I think this sounds so apt here, that if we can just use these 3 principles which we have said, I am sure we will come out in flying colors in the next 6 months or a year or whatever time it takes for us to come out of this situation.
Let me give you one more area which most businessmen should now also focus is that there is a huge dependency because of the, you know, what China has achieved in last probably 3 decades.
Amazing.
Most businesses are dependent on them. This is a time when Government of India is trying to focus a lot on Make in India. So these businessmen of different segments and different, you know, areas must now look at how can they make India more as Atmanirbhar, or self-sufficient, which is what our PM is telling. And these plannings at this point in time, when you are at home and you are connected with your senior leadership and consultants, so that's another area. If it is being done, you should aim that in next 5 to 10 years India, Make in India becomes really, really a big deal here. Because unless you have that wave, I mean, look at 20-25 years back, there was a big wave of IT services. Yes, IT services type of wave can be there now in India on the manufacturing side. I mean, no country can do very well unless you are making a lot of stuff within the country. We should aim that 70-80% dependency in each territory we build within India, and that is my hope. The way government wants to now accelerate the R&D investments, government is trying to give a lot of different loans, and almost all the industries are working that side. Of course, more so in the healthcare because healthcare is a need today, but all other functions can do extremely well. So that's another area which I want business leaders to really aim. You know, even Diwali days Even our Ganesh Lakshmi also comes from China. Can you believe it? Even those diyas come from China, or even the bulbs also come from China. Why should it be? We need to build every area, and that itself is going to help India and our economy a lot. So thank you so much, Preeti.
Thank you, and this was wonderful, Mr. Khurana. Thanks for being with us online. Thank you.
