The National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) has set up a sub-group for the pharmaceutical industry to address immediate issues plagued with the industry and to look at long-term strategic concerns of the pharmaceutical sector.
Formation of the subgroup for pharmaceuticals is an outcome of the first two meetings of NMCC held during January 4 and April 15, 2005 on the advise of the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
NMCC felt sector-wise groups should be formed to formulate the actions that are required to be taken in selected sectors to improve the competitiveness as well as to increase the levels of output. Pharmaceutical industry has been identified as an important sector with enormous potential for growth and, therefore, a sub-group for the sector needs priority. Following this, a 22-member subgroup for pharmaceuticals has been constituted last week with Dr. V Krishnamurthy, chairman, NMCC as the chairman, sources told Pharmabiz.
The other members of the sub-group are Anwarul Hoda, member, Planning Commission, P. Sinha, Secretary, Chemicals & Petrochemicals, V. Govindarajan, member secretary, NMCC, Habil Khorakiwala, CMD, Wockhardt and member, NMCC, Prasanna Hota, Secretary, Health, Prof. V.S. Ramamurthy, Secretary, Science & Technology, Dr. M.K. Bhan, Secretary, Bio-technology, Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Director General, CSIR, S.N. Menon, Commerce Secretary, Prof. Bibek Debroy, Director, RGICS & Member, NMCC, Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Member, NMCC, Ashwani Kumar, Drugs Controller General of India, P. Rama Rao, Director, National Institute of Pharmaceuticals Education and Research (NIPER), Suresh G. Kare, President, Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA), D.G. Shah, Secretary General, Indian Pharmaceuticals Alliance(IPA), Ranjit Shahani, President, Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), Dr. B. Parthasarathy, Reddy, President, Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association, T.S. Jaishankar, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry (CIPI-ssi), Dr. Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI, N. Srinivasan, Director General, CII and D.S. Rawat, Secretary General, ASSOCHAM.
The subgroup of NMCC for pharmaceuticals is convening its first meeting in New Delhi on May 12, 2005 in New Delhi to discuss important issues concerning the sector.
The NMCC, announced in the previous union budget as per the advice of the planning commission and took off recently, is to suggest sector-specific measures for improving performance and to provide a fillip to manufacturing sector and to boost competitiveness, as part of evolving a national manufacturing policy.
Envisaged as an apex body, NMCC is to play a key role with inputs for policy ranking and suggest measures for enhancing the competitiveness of industry. It will also identify manufacturing sectors which have potential for global competitiveness, their problems and constraints, evolve sector-specific strategies to enhance competitiveness of manufacturing sectors, recommend measures to create common infrastructure and facilities like testing, quality and design, provide forum for dialogue between the public and private sectors and labour etc. NMCC will also aim to integrate industry concerns in the export-import and fiscal policies.
V Krishnamooorthy, former head of Maruthi Udyog Limited, is the chairman of NMCC, appointed with the rank and status of a union cabinet minister. The NMCC consists of the decision makers and experts related to various departments, industry, representatives from the ministry of finance, department of industrial policy and promotion, department of commerce, Planning Commission, ministry of external affairs, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) etc.