Union Government launched Cluster Development Programme for Pharma Sector

The Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers Ananth Kumar on 17 June 2015 launched the Cluster Development Programme for Pharma Sector (CDP-PS) in New Delhi.

The scheme is intended to enhance quality, productivity and innovative capabilities of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the pharmacy sector.

Objectives of the programme

• Increase the competitiveness, easy access to standard testing facilities and value addition in the domestic pharma industry especially to SMEs through creation of common world class facilities.
• Strengthening the existing infrastructure facilities in order to make Indian pharmaceutical industry a global leader in pharmaceutical exports
• Reducing the cost of production by 20 percent in the clusters leading to better availability and affordability medicines in domestic market and thereby ensuring health security of the country
• To help industry meet the requirements of standards of environment at a reduced cost through innovative methods of common waste management system

Features of CDP-PS

• It is intended for setting up of new cluster as well as up gradation of existing clusters. At present such clusters already exist in Baddi of Himachal Pradesh, Hardwar of Uttarkhand, Gurgaon in Haryana, Pattancheru of Telangana, Nashik of Maharashtra among others.
• It is a Central Sector Scheme and will be implemented with an investment of 125 crore rupees.
• It will be operational till March 2017 (end of the 12th five year plan period) and 6 clusters will be developed by March 2016 of which 3 will be green fields.  
• It will be implemented on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) format, including state governments, through a Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) formed for this purpose at the cluster level.
• The government will provide one time grant-in-aid to SPVs for creation of identified infrastructure and common facilities.
• Common Facilities under the scheme will consist of creation of tangible assets like Common Testing Facilities (CFCs), training centre, effluent treatment Plant, etc.
• While the maximum limit for the grant-in-aid would be 20 crore rupees per cluster or 70 percent of the cost of project whichever is less, 90 percent of the cost will provided as grant for difficult and backward regions like North East. The balance amount would be mobilised through equities in SPVs.
• State Governments are envisaged to play a pro-active role in the implementation of the scheme by providing requisite land, roads, power and other infrastructure facilities.

Comment

The scheme is in tune with the Make in India campaign of the Union Government that is intended to augment production and productivity of the Indian pharmaceutical industry.
At present, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is the world's third-largest in terms of volume. It is growing at 14 to 15 percent per annum and is likely to touch the figure of 4 lakh crore rupees by 2020.

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