Pharma secretary PD Vaghela says fruits expected in 2 years as govt notifies guidelines for production-linked incentive scheme

Similarly, the import of medical devices is almost 86 percent of our requirement, we need to reduce these imports.

A: We are sure that these schemes will give entrepreneurship a big push in India. Medical devices need high end technology and facilities which are scientific in nature. Our policies will not just encourage big industries, but will make MSMEs participate in these. The basic idea is to bring down the cost of production so that medical devices are manufactured in the country itself. Moreover, we are not just looking to reduce imports, but we aim to increase exports through these schemes.

A: India is almost self-reliant when it comes to manufacturing of 700 APIs. It is only in the case of 53 critical APIs that India depends on imports. We want to reduce this dependence for the critical 53 APIs. API manufacturing requires gestation period of two years so we expect that within the next two years these manufacturing facilities will be up and running.

Some chemical-based API manufacturing can begin even earlier and we are pushing for that. We expect that under the production-linked incentive schemes for APIs/bulk drugs direct employment of 25,000 will be provided and ancillary will add to indirect employment. Similarly, bulk drug parks are estimated to give direct employment to as many as 72,000 people and there will be indirect employment opportunities too.

A: Almost all states have expressed interest in setting up these manufacturing units as they want investments to flow in. We have set a competition criteria based on which states will be selected. They will have to submit their proposals under the guidelines notified today. Multiple states have already written to us and they were waiting for the guidelines. As the guidelines are in place, these states can now start applying.

We must understand that the states are interested because these schemes have a lot of added advantage. Be it the forward and backward linkages for creation of employment or for generation of investments.

Wherever these parks will come up, the industry will benefit those states. For example, wherever an API manufacturing parks come up, the formulation industry will be pushed to set up their units near those parks, which will further boost employment.

Similar is the case for medical devices, wherever a medical device park is set up, the spare part industry would like to set up their units close by, which will again be an added advantage for the state.

Direct and indirect employment setting up of ancillary industries are a few other added advantages that states will get, if they are selected under these schemes.

A: The opportunities are very high and given this almost all the states have shown and interest which is why the central government has decided to go for a challenge mode to select the states.

A: The industry too has expressed interest, but we cannot name them right now. During the industry stakeholder consultations itself the industry had expressed interest.

The production linked incentives are very attractive and the initial feelers from the industry give us the confidence that the schemes will be accepted by the industry.