Every year, India Health draws thousands of hospital administrators, procurement leaders, and device manufacturers to Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi to see what’s genuinely new in Indian healthcare technology. This year’s edition delivered a moment that fits squarely into the country’s broader localisation story: Time Medical, already known in India as the country’s first MRI manufacturer, unveiled its first-ever Made-in-India CT scanner — extending its domestic manufacturing footprint from magnetic resonance imaging into computed tomography for the first time.
The Show, and the Moment
India Health 2026, organised by Informa Markets in India, wrapped up its third edition at Bharat Mandapam with genuinely strong numbers behind it: the show drew more than 300 domestic and international brands and over 8,000 attendees, a 38% increase in unique visitors compared to the previous edition. The programme included more than 35 knowledge sessions featuring over 80 speakers, covering AI, digital transformation, diagnostics, clinical innovation, healthcare access, and the future of care — a genuinely comprehensive snapshot of where Indian healthcare technology is heading.
Amid all of that, organisers and trade press alike singled out one moment as the edition’s defining highlight: Time Medical’s unveiling of its first-ever Made-in-India CT scanner, described consistently across coverage as a significant milestone in domestic medical imaging manufacturing.
Who Time Medical Is, and Why This Matters
Time Medical isn’t a new or unproven name in Indian MedTech manufacturing — which is precisely what makes this CT scanner launch significant rather than speculative. The company is a spin-off from Columbia University, with its founding team drawing on research backgrounds from Columbia, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Hong Kong. Time Medical has built its global reputation around dedicated MRI systems for specialised applications — neonatal imaging, breast cancer screening, and ultra-high-field neuroimaging — and holds patented High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) coil technology that improves image signal-to-noise ratio compared to conventional copper RF coils, a breakthrough recognised with a Frost & Sullivan “Product Innovation of the Year” award.
Crucially for the India story, Time Medical was already the first company to establish a dedicated MRI manufacturing base in India, located at the Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone (AMTZ) in Visakhapatnam — the same shared manufacturing ecosystem covered extensively elsewhere in Indian MedTech coverage this year. At AMTZ, the company has been producing a range of MRI systems, including its EMMA (neonatal), MICA, PICA, and other dedicated imaging platforms, positioning itself as a genuinely specialised, technically differentiated player rather than a mass-market imaging manufacturer.
The CT scanner unveiled at India Health 2026 represents Time Medical’s first expansion of that Indian manufacturing base beyond MRI into computed tomography — broadening its domestic product line into a second major imaging modality using the same AMTZ manufacturing and quality infrastructure it has already established for MRI production.
Where This Fits in India’s Broader CT Manufacturing Story
It’s worth being precise about the competitive landscape here, because Time Medical’s CT scanner isn’t literally the first CT scanner ever manufactured in India — and understanding that context actually strengthens, rather than undermines, the significance of this launch. Several major players have already localised CT production in India: Siemens Healthineers has manufactured Somatom go. platform CT scanners from its Bengaluru facility since 2019; Wipro GE Healthcare has produced its Revolution ACT and Revolution Aspire CT systems domestically, explicitly priced up to 40% below comparable imported scanners and targeted at Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities; and Trivitron Healthcare, manufacturing at AMTZ itself, became the first Indian company to secure BIS, AERB, and CDSCO approval for its domestically developed Terrene CT scanner in 2024.
What Time Medical’s launch adds to this picture is a new, technically credentialed entrant — a company with genuine imaging IP and an already-established India manufacturing track record in MRI — bringing that same capability to CT for the first time. Rather than a single dramatic “first,” India’s CT manufacturing story is better understood as a steadily widening field of credible domestic and India-based manufacturers, each adding manufacturing capacity and competitive choice to a device category that remains, per government data covered elsewhere in this series, among India’s most import-dependent high-value MedTech categories.
Why Domestic CT Manufacturing Matters
CT scanners sit on the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade’s specifically identified priority list of ten high-value device categories targeted for accelerated domestic production — precisely because CT and MRI systems, alongside cardiac pacemakers and continuous glucose monitors, represent some of the deepest and most persistent import dependencies in India’s medical device sector. Every additional credible domestic manufacturer entering this category — whether a global name like Siemens localising production, or a specialised imaging innovator like Time Medical expanding from MRI into CT — incrementally strengthens India’s negotiating position and supply chain resilience in exactly the device categories the government has flagged as most strategically important to localise.
There’s also a genuine cost and access dimension worth noting, consistent with the pattern set by GE’s Revolution ACT pricing: domestically manufactured imaging systems have historically been positioned specifically to reach Tier-2 and Tier-3 hospitals that a fully imported, premium-priced scanner would put out of reach. Whether Time Medical’s new CT scanner follows that same affordability-focused positioning wasn’t detailed in show coverage, but it would be consistent with both the company’s stated “3A vision” — Advanced, Accessible, and Affordable imaging — and the broader logic driving India’s push toward domestic high-value device manufacturing.
What to Watch Next
As with any newly unveiled device, the real markers of significance will come after the show floor: CDSCO regulatory approval status, AERB clearance (required for any ionising radiation-emitting imaging equipment in India), initial hospital installations, and — eventually — published pricing relative to imported alternatives. Given Time Medical’s existing AMTZ manufacturing infrastructure and MRI track record, the company appears well-positioned to move through that validation process on a reasonably credible timeline, though specific regulatory and commercial milestones for the CT scanner had not been publicly detailed at the time of the India Health 2026 unveiling.
For India’s broader medical imaging manufacturing ecosystem, Time Medical’s CT scanner launch is best read as confirmation of a trend already underway rather than a standalone surprise: AMTZ’s manufacturing ecosystem continuing to attract and support technically credible imaging manufacturers, and India’s CT and MRI production base broadening beyond the handful of early movers that first proved domestic manufacturing was viable in this device category.
References
- Exhibition News — India Health 2026 Showcases Country’s Expanding MedTech Manufacturing (https://exhibitionnews.uk/india-health-2026-showcases-countrys-expanding-medtech-manufacturing/)
- Healthcare Executive — India Health 2026 Concludes Successfully, Showcasing India’s Expanding MedTech Manufacturing and Healthcare Innovation Landscape (https://www.healthcareexecutive.in/blog/medtech-manufacturing)
- Medical Buyer — India Health 2026 Concludes; MedTech Manufacturing, Healthcare Innovation Take the Cake (https://medicalbuyer.co.in/india-health-2026-concludes-medtech-manufacturing-healthcare-innovation-take-the-cake/)
- Time Medical — About Us (https://www.time-medical.com/about-us)
- Time Medical India — Official Website (https://timemedical.in/)
- Time Medical Systems India — LinkedIn Company Page (https://in.linkedin.com/company/time-medical-systems-india)
- Competition Commission of India — Market Study of Diagnostic Medical Imaging Equipment Industry in India (https://www.cci.gov.in/public/images/marketstudie/en/market-study-of-diagnostic-medical-imaging-equipment-industry-in-india1724145632.pdf)
- Trivitron Healthcare — Trivitron Healthcare Becomes First Indian Company to Obtain BIS, AERB & CDSCO Approval for CT Scanner Manufacturing (https://www.trivitron.com/news/trivitron-healthcare-becomes-first-indian-company-to-obtain-bis-aerb–cdsco-approval-for-ct-scanner-manufacturing)
Note: This article reflects publicly available show coverage of India Health 2026. Specific regulatory approval status, pricing, and commercial launch timeline for Time Medical’s CT scanner were not publicly detailed at the time of writing; readers should confirm current product status directly with Time Medical or AMTZ.