MTaI Statement on Parliamentary Standing Committee report

While the Parliamentary Standing Committee has perceptively identified the opportunities for improvement—such as ongoing training of CDSCO officials, the implementation of a fully digitized, time-bound, and trackable licensing system, minimizing frequent and delayed queries, lateral entry from the industry and the establishment of an industry advisory board to streamline operations—certain aspects must also be considered:

 1. The centralization of intricate matters within CDSCO is largely due to the concentration of expertise at the organization.

 2. The preference of some companies for Vietnam and Malaysia as manufacturing destinations stems from a variety of factors beyond just CDSCO’s regulatory processes, such as policies, tax regimes, etc.

 3. In one of its earlier comments the committee had spoken of understaffing in CDSCO. This is correct and this understaffing is more acutely felt since all classes of devices have recently come under a mandatory licensing regime.

The honourable committee’s proposal to create a dedicated support team to assist applicants with queries—akin to a chaperone service—would be particularly beneficial, especially for startups, and should be taken up.

In its role as a regulator, CDSCO should continue to champion industry quality and ethical standards thus contributing to the sector’s enduring growth and global positioning.