India Builds First Helium-Free MRI Scanner
A Bengaluru startup just installed India's first homegrown MRI scanner, breaking a decades-long monopoly by foreign manufacturers. The machine costs 40% less and weighs half as much as conventional scanners.
For decades, every MRI scanner in Indian hospitals came from a handful of foreign companies. That changed in December 2024 when Voxelgrids Innovations installed the country's first domestically built scanner at a cancer center near Nagpur.
The breakthrough came from rethinking the machine's most expensive component. Founder Arjun Arunachalam designed a superconducting magnet that doesn't need liquid helium, the rare and costly coolant that drives up both purchase and operating costs.
That single innovation slashes manufacturing costs by 40%. The scanner weighs just two to three tonnes instead of six, meaning smaller hospitals can finally afford to install one without reinforcing their floors.
Arunachalam's path to this moment took patience. After leaving GE's research center in 2008 to start a company, a year of failed fundraising forced him to take a teaching job at IIT Bombay. He kept the dream alive with a small grant that paid for a test scanner in 2013.
In 2016, Tata Trusts saw potential in his proposal. They connected him with resources and people who believed in building critical medical technology in India. The first prototype produced images in March 2018 at a medical institute in Bengaluru.
The Department of Biotechnology contributed 12 crore rupees of the 17 crores needed for development. When funding gaps threatened progress, Tata Trusts and Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu stepped in to keep the company running until Zoho led a $5 million investment round in 2021.
The Ripple Effect
The lighter, cheaper design opens doors for smaller cities and rural areas that could never justify a conventional MRI's cost. Mobile configurations mean the scanner can travel to patients who can't travel to it.
Voxelgrids now has a 33-person team and a facility capable of building 25 scanners annually. The company earned its commercial manufacturing license in June 2023 and expects a full commercial launch by March 2025.
India already makes most hospital equipment domestically. MRI scanners were the holdout, and now that gap is closing with technology designed specifically for the conditions and economics of Indian healthcare.
A country of 1.4 billion people just proved it can build one of medicine's most sophisticated diagnostic tools.
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Based on reporting by YourStory India
This story was written by BrightWire based on verified news reports.
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