The operations of over 5 lakh retail chemists in India have not changed for the better despite considerable progress made by the country's pharmaceutical industry in its manufacturing standards during the last five years. Some of the pharmacy chains run by pharmaceutical companies and Apollo Group, located mostly in metros like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi, however, present a different picture of an Indian pharmacy store. They are air conditioned, modern and managed by qualified pharmacist following the principles of a community pharmacy. But, their numbers are just in hundreds. Vast majority of retail chemist shops in India continue to break rules, follow no proper storage practices and are run without pharmacists although drug authorities in some states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala do take actions against such violations and are genuinely trying to bring some reforms. These actions and initiatives are isolated and are not showing any impact on the overall scene as the authorities are not getting the support from the trading community. Another frequently committed offence by the medical stores is the dispensing of Schedule H drugs without prescription. Such a practice can cause serious health hazard to patients as these drugs are taken without any medical supervision. Antibiotics are the main group of drugs, which are widely dispensed without a prescription. The state drug authorities have not even moved a finger to bring some check to this practice. At the same time, the Central drug authorities appears to be concerned about the need for right delivery of life saving drugs to the patients. It is only last month, DCGI added 219 more drugs to the Schedule H making a total of 453 drugs under prescription category. DCGI has also made it clear that all prescription drugs will be under Schedule H as soon as they are approved for marketing in the country. The issue here is how to enforce the rule on prescription drugs. The call made by the Delhi Society for Promotion of Rational Use of Drugs for strengthening the legal provisions to effectively prevent the OTC sales of antibiotics is just another alarm against this undesirable practice. DSPRUD has suggested that all antibiotics should be brought under a sub group of the Schedule H for stringent punishment and advocated cancellation of the trade licenses of chemists who are found to be selling antibiotics without a prescription. Feasibility of these proposals is quite doubtful considering the current frequency of inspections carried out by the drug inspectors and their level of commitment to the job. It is futile to think, therefore, that this and several other rules pertaining to pharmaceutical trade, will get ever implemented in the near future without motivating the drug control officials and seeking support of the trade.