The biggest global healthcare companies are beginning to take significant steps to develop products for the Indian mass market, not just the tier 2 and 3 towns, but also villages, where healthcare problems are the most acute.

GE Healthcare on Wednesday said it was developing a range of new super value products in India that would be priced 25% to 40% lower than their lowest priced products previously developed for India and emerging markets.

In June, Philips’ healthcare business launched a range of infant warmers and incubators in India at prices that it said were significantly lower than of equivalent products then in the Indian market. The first of GE’s super value products, a baby warmer, is planned to be launched by the end of the year. The company did not provide an exact price, but indicated it would be close to about Rs 50,000. Its lowest cost baby warmer, the Lullaby, designed in and for India and launched in 2009, is priced now at Rs 1.2 lakh.

"India will be our location for super value products, quality products at low prices," said Tom Gentile, CEO of GE Healthcare Systems, who was in Bangalore with almost the entire leadership team of the $20-billion GE Healthcare. The team was in India to meet customers and to learn from the frugal engineering that is happening in its Bangalore R&D centre.

This centre is its biggest outside the US, with over 1,600 engineers, and works on a range of product areas including in cardiac care, infant care and maternal care. The centre has developed battery operated portable ECG systems, high frequency x-ray systems, ultrasound systems and baby warmers that are available at prices that are a fraction of those on imported products.

"We will further lower costs on our entire range of products," said Terri Bresenham, CEO of GE Healthcare India. India contributed $570 million in revenues to GE Healthcare in 2012, about 5% of its total revenues.