The forthcoming Indian Pharmaceutical Congress (IPC), the largest gathering of stakeholders, will deliberate among many things the unbridled approval accorded to new pharmacy colleges without taking into consideration of the demand side and thus causing a spurt in unemployment in the market.
The 65th edition of IPC, scheduled at Amity University, Nodia near here from December 20-22, is also expected to come up with a strong resolution on the need for taking up an assessment by the Government on the market conditions, though new opportunities were thrown open for the pharmacists.
“Three crucial areas of discussions will be the issues related to education, industry and regulations. Every year new pharmacy colleges are approved, churning out large number of pharmacists much above the demand,” IPC organizing secretary Dr Arun Garg said.
He said the Government has to take into consideration of the demand, as the quality of education was suffered. “The meet will also discuss the malpractices going on in the education sector. Unlike before, the M. Pharm is approved with over 100 seats and there is a real shortage of teachers,” he pointed out.
Backing the sentiments, Prof S S Agarwal who is a veteran in the field also called for the need to calculate the need factor before approving the courses. “There should be a proper planning based on the demand by the market. Besides, the curriculum of the pharmacy course also should be revised in accordance with the current market conditions, including the manufacturing sectors,” he said.
The theme for the conference is “Pharma Vision 2020: Empowering Pharmacist.” Prominent scientific personalities and intellectuals from the pharmaceutical industry, research and development, regulatory departments, quality control, hospitals, community pharmacy, academic fields, marketing, pharmaceutical consultants, policy makers, state and central agencies will be attending the event.
“The Pharmacy Professionals must be educated and empowered to assume the responsibilities and higher level of leadership roles, so that they can maintain and expand their positions in all field of healthcare sectors. Empowering Pharmacist means developing leaders from a variety of backgrounds, to provide diversity of thoughts and experiences that can move our country forward,” said Indian Pharmaceutical Congress Association president A K Nasa.
Present day pharmacist is in need of a much-wanted empowerment, whether it is on the knowledge side or the practising side. The assembly of more than 5000 delegates, 100 eminent speakers and experts will try to decode this on and off the stage during the three days of IPC.