Indian hospital furniture industry as a whole is considered as a "non-organized" sector, and 85% of the furniture production in India goes to handicraft production. The furniture sector in India makes a marginal contribution to the formation of GDP (just about 0.5%). The furniture industry employs a total of around 300,000 workers. According to annual survey of Industry, the total production of furniture in 2001-02 was USD 3580 million.

There are various divisions of the furniture industry. One of the important division is the hospital furniture industry.

Hospital furniture industry or medical furniture industry in India has assumed significant importance and has registered tremendous growth in recent years. India's health care sector has made impressive progress in recent years. It has transformed to a US$ 17 billion industry and is surging ahead with an annual growth rate of 13 per cent annually.

The recent decision of the government allowing the entry of private agencies in health insurance is an important step to reach out to the vast majority of people who are without any insurance coverage. The corporate hospitals and other agencies will play an important role in the current scenario. The demand for quality health care is going to further increase with the increased awareness about health which has resulted in the phenomenal growth of hospitals.

It is obvious that with the growth of hospitals, there is also the need of growth of hospital furniture. The expansion in health care industry has resulted in mushrooming growth of hospitals and medical stores across the country which urgently need to be scientifically managed to meet the demand of this sector.

As such Indian manufacturers and exporters have started giving importance to the manufacturing of hospital furniture and equipments. Not only a large segment of the hospital furniture is supplied all over India to Government as well as Private Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Medical Colleges, they are also exported to various countries through leading export houses. Some major countries of the world to which Indian hospital furniture is exported are Afghanistan, Antigua, Bangladesh, USA, Europe, South Africa, South Asia, Middle East, Ghana etc.

It is thus seen that the Indian hospital furniture industry has tremendous chances of growth with proper foreign trade policies and proper government intervention.