Three years after a task force recommended scheme to help small and medium scale pharma companies to reduce environmental hazards, moves are afoot again now to get approved a Rs.100-crore worth scheme for extending financial and technical assistance to the companies, especially those into bulk drugs.
It is learnt that the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) is actively pursuing the scheme for environment standards compliance and required infrastructure support including capacity building and has sought approval from the Planning Commission. The scheme, if approved, will be implemented during the current five year plan period.
The international customers from developed nations are becoming more stringent on ensuring local environment standard compliance standards and want companies to adhere to these standards. This has led to a big challenge for the Indian pharma industry, particularly small scale units, which either have investment concerns or limitations of growth beyond their allotted unit areas in the industrial clusters set up earlier with antiquated environment standards compliance potential, said the proposal.
“DoP is expected to play a vital role by providing financial and technical assistance to improve financial sustainability of SMEs on one hand and also safeguard the environment from the hazards associated with the unplanned growth of the industry. A budgetary provision of Rs.100 crore is required for the purpose,” sources said.
Nearly three years back, the core group of the task force set up by the DoP on the environment hazards in the pharma sector had suggested including more SME pharma units for environmental performance improvement as part of the proposed action plan and limit the scope of interventions to bulk drug manufacturing industries as pharmaceuticals do not have similar complexity of problems.
According to the proposed operational plan for the period upto 2012-13, in upto 100 selected pharmaceuticals industries, environmental performance improvement, safety and occupational hazard management, development of onsite/offsite emergency plans and cleaner production would be demonstrated through the concepts of ecoprofit, emergency/hazard management, energy efficiency, CDM, cleaner production techniques etc. leading to improved manufacturing processes, improved environmental quality and reduced risks/impacts on environment.
But the programme, aimed at cleaner industry with a detailed operational plan, did not take off so far, for the want of approval from the Planning Commission.