LSSSDC, following the mandate by CDSCO and State FDCA, conducted a Himachal Pradesh Life Sciences Sector Skill Development Summit at Baddi. The event held on April 11, 2017 was supported the department of industries, FDCA,-HP, FOPE, HDMA, BBNIA.
 
The event is focussed on “Skill Upgradation and Certification of Existing Workforce in Manufacturing Units”. The circular from the CDSCO dated August 26, 2016 stated that pharma manufacturing units will not be able to employ a non-certified workforce after 31 December, 2017.
 
The skill certification will be part of Skill India mission of government of India. During the summit, the existing workforce certification program was endorsed a team of officials including Navneet Marwah, State Drug Controller, Dr. B K Samantray, DDC(I)-CDSCO, Rajesh Sharma, MD, HPKVN and Industry leaders like Dr. Dinesh Dua, Vice Chairman Pharmexcil Board and CEO, Nectar Lifesciences, Sanjay Khurana, Past Chairman - CII HP Council, Rajesh Gupta, VP - FOPE, Chief Advisor - HDMA & MD - Dallas Formulations, M B Goyal, President - HDMA, Rajendra Guleria, Ex-President - BBNIA, chairman – CII Regional Committee (Skill & Education) and B J Lamba, Head - HR, Morepen Laboratories.
 
Around 115 pharma manufacturing units participated in the event. Ranjit Madan, CEO, LSSSDC and Anshul Saxena, Director, LSSSDC explained the skill certification process and clarified the doubts of the industry.
 
For small scale units with annual turnover below Rs.150 crore, LSSSDC will be utilizing the funding from PMKVY and will be conducting assessment free of cost.
 
Sachin Sachdeva - Manager, LSSSDC also shared his views on the skilling ecosystem for providing the fresh skilled workforce to the industry, where organizations like BTTI, Smart Brains, Rayat Bahra University, MMU, Chitakara University, CSIR-IMTECH will be working as Vocational Training Centres.