From investment, innovation hub to job creation, Siemens Healthineers plans big for India's digital health

The Atmanirbhar Bharat mission is on full throttle when it comes to India's digital healthcare. Several global companies, especially in healthcare technology, know that India is the right market among the pandemic-affected nations to plan big for future business expansion, talent acquisition, and revenue generation.

And one among those global health-tech companies is Siemens Healthineers. The German medtech giant in the business of digitalization of healthcare announced its plans today to invest INR 1,300 crore (EUR 160 million) over the next five years in an innovation hub in Bengaluru, India.

The innovation hub will be housed in a new state-of-the-art campus that combines the existing R&D center and an ultra-modern medical imaging factory.

To expand its digital capabilities, the company plans to add up to 1,800 digital talents in the next ten years.

Siemens Healthineers’ strategy 2025

The investment is part of Siemens Healthineers’ strategy 2025, in which India plays an important role as a growth market for the company.

Elisabeth Staudinger, President Asia Pacific, Siemens Healthineers, says that this investment is the largest Siemens has ever made in India.

"It will play a key role in taking our business to the next level by driving digitalization and expanding our portfolio for emerging markets. The innovation hub in Bengaluru will demonstrate our commitment to advance healthcare through cutting-edge digital technologies as well as through accessible and affordable innovations driven from India,” said Staudinger.

The investment aims to make India a manufacturing center for the company’s emerging market products. Today, the Bengaluru factory is successfully manufacturing Cios Fit C-arms and Somatom.go CT scanners.

These entry-level systems are designed, developed, and made in India and are sold in South-East Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and South America. Siemens Healthineers plans to expand its product portfolio to address the challenge of affordability that is specific to these markets.

The Bengaluru innovation hub

The Bengaluru campus will be one of four innovation hubs of the company, with other hubs located in the United States, Germany, and China.

The innovation hub at Bengaluru will include centers of competence in digital technologies such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, immersive technologies like augmented and virtual reality, user experience, and cybersecurity.

Explaining the Siemens Healthineers innovation hub concept, Peter Schardt, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, pointed out that the Bengaluru innovation hub will assume increased responsibility for customer-centric solutions to serve markets like India even better.

Schardt indicated that the special focus is on solutions for the digitalization of healthcare, which is the foundation for value-based and patient-centered medicine within the region and across the globe.

So far, Siemens Healthineers has already invested about INR 2,500 crore (EUR 300 million) in R&D in the country. With about 50 percent of all the software engineers in Siemens Healthineers, the existing R&D center at Bengaluru plays a strategic role in developing cutting-edge software products and platforms for all three segments of the company – Imaging, Diagnostics, and Advanced Therapies.

Gerd Hoefner, Senior Vice President Development Center and Managing Director Siemens Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., is in the opinion that Bengaluru is an ideal location for an innovation hub because of its strong innovation and healthcare ecosystems, coupled with reputed educational institutions. "The city offers a large talent pool who embrace digital with an open mindset and readily adapts to new ways of working with new-age technology competences,” said Hoefner.   

Vivek Kanade, Executive Vice President Zone India, Siemens Healthineers, stated, “Closely integrating product development and clinical value creation at the new Bengaluru campus will significantly increase our ability to add more value to our customers. Innovative solutions and adaption of digitalization would address current challenges and future needs of the Indian Healthcare industry.” 

When completed in 2025, the first phase of the new campus will include 70,000 square meters of office space for the enlarged R&D center and 5,000 square meters of factory space.

Siemens, in its press note, has said that the company in order to create a modern work environment for the employees and to meet the highest standards in sustainability and energy efficiency, international architectural competition is planned to bring creativity into the design of the new campus.