Find a Local Partner in India.

Is the product a fit for the Indian market?

• Is there a real need and appetite for the product or service being offered?

  Meaningful added value; a relative Israeli advantage; the Israeli brand.

• Does the market even exist and, if so, is it saturated?
• Does the product need to be adapted to local usage patterns?

Is there a business fit?

• High price sensitivity.
• Preference for proven, established products.

  Are you going to have to educate the market?

• Fragmented vs. concentrated market.

• Is the company genuinely prioritizing the Indian market?
• India is a relatively self-contained market, and within India there are also distinct sub-markets.

  There is a certain connection to the UAE and to African countries, and through them some access to developed markets.

• Entering the Indian market is resource-intensive:
  1. Long sales cycles.
  2. Requirement for repeat visits and continuous follow-up.
  3. Requirement for senior-management involvement, including the CEO.
  4. Time and money.
• Is the company willing to move activity into India — localization, support, manufacturing, and Make in India?

• Preference for local production — not only in public tenders.
• There are different tiers of local-content preference:
  1. Class III — less than 20% local content.
  2. Class II — 20–50%.
  3. Class I — at least 50%, and can reach 70%.
• The applicable tier varies by project, specific tender terms, sector, technology and funding source.

  In certain cases a local-content preference exists even in the private market.

• The relative share of the Israeli component within the overall product is critical.
• The regulation is strict in scope but flexible in implementation.
• Make within India.

• Choice of sector and sub-sector — particularly relevant for cross-sector products.
• Public sector or private sector.
• System integrator or end-customer — depends on the product and the domain.

  Why not both?

• What is the right customer size?
  • Large conglomerates — expect meaningful added value; long processes; organizational bureaucracy.
  • Second- and third-tier players — hungrier for added value; give more attention; higher price sensitivity.
• A champion inside the customer — a pincer of a senior sponsor plus a professional-level owner.

  Hierarchical organizational culture, for better and for worse.

• High variability across states and cities.
• Major metropolis vs. periphery — a trade-off between infrastructure and volume of opportunities on one side, and competition and attention on the other.

The five zones above are where that trade-off actually gets made.

• Give yourself a partner — take your time choosing one.
• "Middleman" is not a dirty word.
• You can combine several of the models.
• Local value addition.

• Exclusivity — limited by time, sector, tender and geography, and made conditional on targets and investment.
• Market access — appoint a single central owner; Indian partners often eye other markets too.
• Investment — cash or in-kind.
• A clear framework — allocation of responsibilities, timelines, measurable targets.

Indians tend to be optimistic — when a company says "yes", ask carefully what it actually means.

A Class B or C device runs a 24–36 month CDSCO pathway. An existing FDA clearance or CE mark is recognised and expedites the review, but it is not a substitute for filing.

Start the regulatory clock before the commercial conversation, not after it. Otherwise the partner you just signed spends two years with nothing to sell.

Public hospitals — AIIMS, PGIMER, the state medical colleges — buy through the Government e-Marketplace (GeM). Registration is what makes a vendor eligible to be bought from at all.

Clinical enthusiasm inside a government hospital converts to exactly nothing until that registration exists. It's paperwork, and it's also half the market.

Private hospital chains, government tenders, and the insurance reimbursement pathway each price differently, and you need a position on all three before the first quote leaves your desk.

For Nerivio, that position came out of a 1,500-participant price acceptance study run in India — not out of converting the European price.