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Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Saturday virtually inaugurated 27 greenfield bulk drug park projects and 13 greenfield manufacturing plants for medical devices under the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme.

Addressing the inauguration event, Union Minister Mandaviya said, "It is noteworthy that today India has not only reduced its dependence on the import of medicines, API and medical devices, the country is also emerging as a major exporter of these products, thanks to the success of the PLI scheme."

The bulk drug plants inaugurated on Saturday are located across various states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

"The PLI-I scheme of the Union government identified 48 critical bulk drugs for manufacturing locally. The success of this inaugural scheme led the government to launch the Rs 15,000 crore PLI-II scheme which envisaged to increase our cost competitiveness for medicines and medical products in the international market," he said.

Highlighting the government's efforts towards making India 'atmanirbhar' (self-reliant) in the field of critical medicines and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), the Union Minister stated the example of Penicillin G, a widely used drug which were locally manufactured in India until the late 1980s. Due to globalisation, the import of Penicillin G led to the closure of all such plants in India. He highlighted that the Union government is working on bringing back production of Penicillin G in India after three decades.

Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, said that the PLI scheme was also envisaged through the same vision to bring in localisation and value addition to India's pharma and MedTech industry and simultaneously also reduce over-dependence on critical resources from certain geographies, in an oblique reference to China.

During the event, Arunish Chawla, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, gave a detailed presentation on the PLI scheme. He said that the drug and pharmaceutical industry in India witnessed a 12 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the last 10 years.

He also highlighted that under the PLI scheme, as many as 1800 pharmaceutical products and formulations and 22 bulk drugs will be manufactured in India.

The PLI scheme envisages manufacturing of 41 bulk drugs with a total outlay of Rs 6,940 crore during the tenure of the scheme from 2020-21 to 2029-30.

As many as 26 applicants for manufacturing of medical devices have been approved for 138 products under the PLI scheme with total financial outlay of Rs 3,420 crore for the period 2020-21 to 2027-28.