Here’s a summary of recent research showing the current and future expected growth of the medical device market in India. It features plenty of stats, all upward trending and at a good velocity, but it was this statement that interested me the most: The medical devices and equipments market is poised for phenomenal growth due to focused investment in healthcare infrastructure and foreign manufacturers of medical devices and equipments eyeing for India for creating global hub for manufacturing medical devices and equipments.  

The reference to foreign manufacturers is the key phrase. Why? Because regardless of what happens here in the US, or when, in terms of the FDA’s ruling on Unique Device Identification (UDI), India is a heavy-duty backer of the standard. In fact, it is a government-backed initiative. See for yourself. Here’s the GS1 India homepage. From there, if you drill down via the link entitled GS1 Movement in India, you’ll find the following statement:

GS1 India is promoted by the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India and was registered in June 1996 as a society. It is a joint Government-Industry initiative at educating the Indian  trade and industry on use of the GS1 numbering system for unique identification of products/services and locations in line with international best practices.

If you root around a bit more you will also see at this site a Pharmaceutical and Healthcare application area.  All of this combined means a couple of really important things. It is likely that for the lack of a proper label, a healthcare device made by a foreign manufacturer may not make it off the dock. Two, this isn’t going to be an issue with a private trading partner in a far away place with a mere preference for some standard ID methodology. This is going to be an issue with a sovereign government, in this case India, with little interest in any outsider’s view of how business gets conducted in their country, and that includes the use of GS1.