India’s hospitals are buying more CT and MRI capacity every year than the domestic industry has ever built — and for the first time, a credible list of Indian and MNC-localised manufacturers is actually shipping machines against that demand, not just applying for incentives.
The demand side: a market growing faster than beds
India’s CT scanner market is estimated at roughly $438.8 million in 2026, growing to $605.1 million by 2031 (6.65% CAGR); the MRI market is smaller but growing faster, at $297.9 million in 2026 rising to $419.8 million by 2031 (7.1% CAGR). Combined, the installed base of X-ray and CT systems nationally is estimated at over 45,000 units, with 3,500–4,500 new installations a year across both modalities. The broader diagnostic imaging equipment market — which folds in ultrasound, mammography and nuclear imaging alongside CT/MRI — is estimated at $2.21bn in 2026, heading to $3.16bn by 2031 (7.38% CAGR). Market-size estimates vary meaningfully by research house depending on methodology and what counts as "installed base" vs. "active fleet"; treat these as directional, not precise.
Demand is being pulled by rising healthcare spend (targeting 2.5% of GDP under the National Health Policy), a rising non-communicable-disease burden that is imaging-intensive (cancer, neurology, cardiac), Ayushman Bharat-funded public-hospital upgrades, and the same access gap this blog covered separately — roughly 3 MRI units per million population against a global average of 7, with public queues running months to years.
The supply side: who is actually building the machines
| Company | What they’re building | Status / detail |
|---|---|---|
| Siemens Healthineers | MRI (MAGNETOM Free.Star, helium-free) | Dedicated MRI production line inaugurated at its Bengaluru facility under the PLI scheme. |
| Wipro GE Healthcare | Magnets, gradient coils; PET-CT for export | USD 960 million committed through 2028 for magnet/gradient-coil manufacturing depth; a Bengaluru plant producing PET-CT scanners for export to roughly 15 countries. |
| VoxelGrids Innovations (Zoho-backed) | Indigenous 1.5T and 1.2T MRI scanners | India’s first fully indigenous MRI design; cryogen-free, CDSCO-approved; the 1.2T system is listed around ₹2.8 crore (~USD 340,000), roughly 40% below comparable imports. |
| Trivitron Healthcare | CT scanners | First Indian company to obtain BIS, AERB and CDSCO approval for domestic CT-scanner manufacturing; launched its made-in-India CT scanner in 2024. |
| Time Medical (via AMTZ, Vizag) | MRI systems | Manufacturing at the Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone, which also hosts India’s only Superconducting Magnet Testing, Validation & Integration Centre. |
Company detail compiled from press releases, PIB statements and trade coverage (Siemens Healthineers newsroom, GE HealthCare disclosures, VoxelGrids/CDSCO approval coverage, Trivitron press releases). Direct LinkedIn company-page posts were not retrievable through the search tools used for this piece — the underlying announcements largely originate there but are cited here via the press coverage that mirrors them, not the original posts.
What the PLI scheme has actually delivered so far
As of a July 2026 Lok Sabha reply, 27 projects have been approved under the Medical Devices PLI scheme (including 14 MSMEs), against actual realised investment of ₹1,153.07 crore. Approved projects have commenced domestic manufacturing not just of CT and MRI systems but also linear accelerators (LINACs), mammography systems, C-arms, ultrasound equipment, heart valves, stents and dialysis products — a broader localisation wave than imaging alone. An earlier March 2026 reply (PIB PRID 2239576) had put the count at 28 approved projects, 24 greenfield, 57 products commissioned and ₹157.15 crore disbursed. The two replies measure different things: ₹157.15 crore was incentive disbursed, while the July figure of ₹1,153.07 crore is investment actually made by approved companies; 23 of the 27 projects had been commissioned by July 2026.
Market share: still an MNC-led market, for now
Siemens Healthineers, Philips India and Wipro GE collectively hold over 60% of India’s MRI market as of 2026 (per the Mordor Intelligence/IndexBox market-size reports cited below), leaning on established service networks and premium brand positioning built over decades. The PLI-era entrants — VoxelGrids and Trivitron most visibly — are not yet challenging that share meaningfully, but they are doing something the incumbents cannot: pricing 30–40% below imported equivalents while running as domestic manufacturers with domestic service infrastructure, which is precisely the value proposition that matters for the tier-2/tier-3 hospital segment where India’s access gap is worst.
See also: India’s Medical-Device Trade Gap for the import-dependence and PLI-coverage picture, and Rare-Earth Magnets and Specialty Steel for the upstream magnet-manufacturing capability MRI localisation depends on. Sources: Lok Sabha replies (Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Mar 2026 and Jul 2026), PIB press releases, Mordor Intelligence and IndexBox market-size reports, company press releases (Siemens Healthineers, GE HealthCare, Trivitron), CDSCO approval coverage of VoxelGrids. Update of 7 November 2026: Indian Pharma Post on the July 2026 reply; Business Today on VoxelGrids; BioSpectrum on India Health 2026. This is market analysis, not investment advice, and none of the figures here should be treated as a recommendation regarding any specific company or security.
What would fix this
- The Department of Pharmaceuticals should publish a dated quarterly table for the Medical Devices PLI listing each approved project, its products, committed investment, realised investment and incentive disbursed as separate columns, so that figures like ₹157.15 crore and ₹1,153.07 crore are not read as the same measure.
- AERB should publish an annual state-wise count of licensed CT installations, new and decommissioned, so that India’s installed base comes from the regulator’s own licensing records rather than research-house estimates that vary by methodology.
- CDSCO should publish the list of manufacturing licences it has granted for MRI and CT scanners, by manufacturer, site and model, so that who is actually building imaging machines in India can be checked against a regulator’s register rather than press releases.
- The Health Ministry should report what share of CT and MRI units bought for public-hospital upgrades are domestically manufactured, so that it is visible whether lower-priced Indian-made scanners are reaching the tier-2 and tier-3 hospitals where the access gap is worst.
These are proposals from this blog, not recommendations any agency has adopted.
About this article: Researched, written and edited by Umashankar Triplicane Dwarakanathan, with AI research assistance; every figure is meant to trace to the primary source cited. See the Editorial Policy for how sourcing, AI use and corrections work.
