NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet, which met on Saturday, cleared packages for incentivising production of electronics as well as chemical raw materials that go into drug-making.India is dependent on China for around 67 per cent of the bulk drugs and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) that go into manufacturing of medicines in the country. India imported APIs worth $2.5 billion in 2018-19 from China. However, stocks of these raw materials are dwindling and India has been looking at alternative-but-costlier sources such as Italy, Singapore and the US.
Similarly, India imported nearly 40 per cent of its requirements for finished goods and components that go into manufacture of electronic goods, ranging from mobile phones to laptops and medical devices, from China. With the pandemic impacting Chinese manufacturing, supplies have stopped.While a package of `44,995 crore was announced for promoting electronics manufacturing, that for pharmaceutical production was `13,760 crore.
The pandemic, which started in China, saw halting of supplies for several bulk drugs and APIs, which are raw materials for key medicines.Saturday’s decision will see around `3,000 crore pumped into setting up three bulk drug parks in partnership with states. The incentive scheme worth `6,940 crore will give manufacturers 20 per cent incentive on incremental sales of 53 identified critical bulk drugs and 26 fermentation-based bulk drugs. About 10 per cent incentive will be given for 27 chemical synthesis-based bulk drugs.
Analysts said these ingredients would help make drugs for HIV, cancer, epilepsy, malaria, commonly used antibiotics and anti-inflamatory drugs, among other diseases. “Any disruption in supplies can have significant adverse impact on Drug Security, which is also linked to the overall economy of the country,” a government note on this issue said.
The government also cleared `400 crore for setting up four medical devices parks and offered `3,420 crore as incentives to encourage production of all implants including implantable electronic devices like cochlear implants and pacemakers, besides radiotherapy medical devices, radiology & imaging medical devices including nuclear imaging devices, anesthetics and cardio-respiratory medical devices.
The production-linked incentives for the electronics industry will be spent over the next five years and is linked to production and investments made in India. “Because of these schemes, we hope to generate manufacturing revenue potential of `10 lakh crore by 2025,” said Union communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, adding that there was a potential to create 2 million new jobs.He said the Centre has also approved the Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters Scheme for development of world-class infrastructure along with common facilities and amenities through Electronics Manufacturing Clusters.