New Delhi: The recent controversy involving Galgotias University, which was barred from participating in the India AI Impact Summit expo at the national capital after allegedly presenting a Chinese-origin robot as an indigenous innovation, has triggered a broader conversation extending beyond academia into India’s critical healthcare manufacturing ecosystem.
The action, taken following scrutiny by officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), has become a crucial point for policymakers and industry leaders who see the episode not as an isolated lapse, but as symptomatic of deeper issues around provenance claims, transparency, and regulatory oversight especially in sectors where safety and trust are paramount.
From AI Ethics to MedTech Accountability
Drawing parallels with the medical technology sector, Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator at the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD), argued that similar vigilance must apply to medical devices entering the Indian market under the “Made in India” label.
“If such restrictions apply to universities in AI, they must extend to pseudo-manufacturing in critical sectors like medical devices,” Nath said. “Manufacturing licences should be denied where companies merely package or relabel imported products as Indian-made, particularly when these devices directly impact patient safety,” he added.
He stressed that devices requiring no substantive assembly in India should carry transparent declarations such as “Packed by [Indian company name]” along with the original country of manufacture. According to Nath, regulatory refinements are needed to curb what he described as a growing practice of repackaging imports while bypassing the extensive compliance burden faced by genuine domestic manufacturers.
“Make in India cannot have shortcuts,” he added, warning that unchecked relabelling could undermine local innovation and expose patients to risks from inadequately vetted imports.
Call for Guardrails, Not Overcorrection
Offering a more cautionary perspective, Pavan Choudhary, Chairman, Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI), said the incident underscores the need for institutional checks without creating an atmosphere that discourages collaboration or technology transfer.“As India’s deep-tech sector grows, we must prioritise honesty about where technology originates, without creating a bureaucratic dragnet that scares off investors and innovators,” Choudhary noted.
He advocated for a disclosure-based framework requiring organisations to clearly state whether technologies are indigenous, co-developed, licensed, or imported backed by penalties for misrepresentation but not excessive regulation.
“When imported technology is presented as home-grown innovation, it erodes trust among investors, policymakers, global collaborators and, most importantly, young researchers,” he said.
Choudhary also emphasised that accountability must remain institutional rather than individual.
“Universities must stand by their processes and take ownership of internal vetting failures rather than shifting blame to representatives. The example set for students matters as much as the correction itself.”
A Wakeup Call for India’s Innovation Narrative
The debate arrives at a time when India is actively positioning itself as both a global manufacturing hub and an emerging deep-tech innovator. As sectors such as AI-driven healthcare, medical devices, and digital diagnostics converge, credibility of origin claims is becoming as important as capability.
Industry observers note that India’s next phase of growth will depend not only on scaling innovation, but also on establishing trust frameworks clear labelling norms, verifiable value addition, and institutional due diligence—that distinguish genuine domestic development from assembly-led participation in global supply chains.
Summing up the larger lesson, Choudhary said, “Greater discipline in communication would serve us all. Precision about what we build, what we adapt, and what we import is essential if India wants to lead with confidence in the global innovation economy.”
The Galgotias episode, while rooted in an academic showcase, has thus opened a far wider policy conversation one that now sits at the intersection of ethics, industrial strategy, and patient safety forcing India to confront a critical question: In the race to innovate, how should authenticity be defined, declared, and defended?
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