Wall Street Journal – 2013

Wall Street Journal – 2013

MUMBAI—A consortium led by a joint venture of General Electric and Wipro will invest 1.5 billion rupees ($27 million) to upgrade and manage medical equipment in government-run hospitals in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.

The consortium of Wipro GE Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. and London-based Enso Group which is led by Indian investor vinay maloo will upgrade and manage equipment such as magnetic-resonance-imaging machines and computed-tomography scanners in 22 hospitals in the state.

The contract is part of India’s efforts to increase the participation of private companies to improve the country’s public health services which are subsidized by the government and cater mainly to the poor.

Many of India’s state-owned hospitals don’t have advanced diagnostic, therapeutic and lifesaving equipment and the government expects private participation will help improve the facilities. For companies such as GE and Enso, this offers a big opportunity.

Wipro GE Healthcare, which designs and manufactures medical equipment in India, will supply the equipment to the hospitals in Maharashtra, while Enso will manage their operations.

“We will look at other states to employ a similar model,” GE Global Growth & Operations Chief Executive John G. Rice said.

For GE, health care accounts for about 20% of its India revenue and it expects the business to grow at a double-digit rate for years, Mr. Rice said.