With the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP)'s much publicised Pharmaceutical Technology Upgradation Assistance Scheme (PTUAS) still gathering dust in the shelves of the planning commission, the DoP has started fresh efforts to cobble together a new scheme for the capacity building of small and medium industries to upgrade their units as per WHO-GMP standards which will boost exports from the country.

The DoP's initiative in this regard comes in the backdrop of the Union commerce ministry's ambitious target of doubling of pharma exports from the country by the year 2015.

Aiming to assist the medium scale industry to upgrade their units as pert the WHO-GMP, US FDA, UK MHRA and other international norms, the DoP had last year proposed the PTUAS scheme under which the DoP was to provide an interest subsidy of five per cent on loans availed for such purposes, amounting upto a project cost or loan amount of Rs.10 crore.

In fact, as per the initial plan of the DoP, the scheme was to come into effect from July 1 last year and the date was later postponed to January 1, 2011 as the proposal was stuck with the planning commission. The DoP is still waiting for the planning body's approval for the scheme which would have proved to be a boon to the units which were looking to upgrade their units to comply with WHO-GMP, US FDA and other international norms but are unable to do so due to financial constraints.

As the DoP could not convince the planning commission about the utility of PTUAS scheme during the 11th plan period which is coming to a close, the DoP reworked the PTUAS scheme and has submitted the scheme once again to the planning commission for the 12th plan period which starts from next year.

But, the DoP is not sure about the fate of the PTAUS scheme in the 12th plan as the commission had last year raised several questions regarding the scheme from the DoP, most importantly the number of interested units for the scheme. While the planning commission is not sure about the number of aspirants who are genuinely interested in this scheme, the DoP so far has not been able to convince the commission to get its final nod for the scheme.