Member of Parliament and GITAM president M. Sribharat called for greater collaboration among medicine, engineering, management and natural sciences to develop healthcare solutions at BioMed Bharat 2026, a two-day national Biomedical Device Innovation Hackathon hosted by GITAM Deemed to be University.

Mr. Sribharat said hackathons should be a starting point for developing solutions to real-world healthcare challenges and urged students and academic institutions to move beyond prototypes towards execution-ready solutions. He also highlighted the Andhra Pradesh Med Tech Zone (AMTZ) in Visakhapatnam as a major medical-device manufacturing cluster.

GITAM Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (GIMSR) Pro Vice-Chancellor Gitanjali Batmanabane urged participants to use artificial intelligence, robotics and 3D printing to develop affordable medical devices. She said 22 greenfield projects had been commissioned under the Production Linked Incentive scheme.

Progenics Laboratories & Aktachem Biotech Pvt. Ltd. managing director S. Venkata Prasad said medical-device exports reached $4.1 billion in 2024-25. Student teams competed for ₹4.5 lakh in prizes.