Modi inaugurates ‘bulk drug park’

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the foundation stone of a ‘bulk drug park’ at Haroli in the Una district of the northern state of Himachal Pradesh state. In doing so, he said that the park will help to “reduce dependence on API imports”.

The park will be built at a cost of around €240 million, with much of the funding coming from the state. It is expected to attract €1.25 billion in investment and employ 20,000. Two more , with the same level of investment, are to be created in Andhra Pradesh and Modi’s native Gujarat by 2025 under a scheme the government initiated in March 2020.

The government said that although the Indian pharmaceutical industry is the world’s third largest by volume, “it is significantly dependent on the imports of bulk drugs or APIs”, which accounted for 63% of total pharmaceutical imports in 2018-19. COVID-related lockdowns brought further supply challenges.

The laying of the foundation stone was part of a series of high profile projects at Una, which included a new, high-speed Vande Bharat Express train to New Delhi and the dedication of the Indian Institute of Information Technology. Building the parks is also part of the ruling party’s Aatmanirbharta (Made in India) policy.