Fifty new greenfield plants are to be set up in the next two years under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for pharma and medical device manufacturing, a senior government official said on Thursday. According to a PTI report, Department of Pharmaceuticals Secretary Arunish Chawla said at the annual pharma summit organised by industry body Assocham that 50 plants have already been set up under the PLI schemes for both the sectors on the completion of ten years of the 'Make in India' initiative.

PLI schemes have been very successful

According to the news, he said that the PLI schemes have been very successful in the pharma and medtech sectors, with 50 new greenfield pharma and medical device manufacturing plants already operational and 50 more plants in the pipeline. When asked during the summit when the 50 new greenfield plants would come up, he said everything would be completed in the next two years. Elaborating on the success of the PLI schemes, Chawla said that in the last two years alone, the PLI plant has boosted exports worth $10 billion from India to the most regulated destinations across the world.

Indian pharma industry achieves balance of trade in bulk drugs

Chawla said the perception of India as an importer of bulk drugs overly dependent on a few destinations is a myth, adding that last year India exported as many bulk drugs as it imported from abroad. He said the Indian pharma industry has achieved trade balance in bulk drugs. He said last year more than 50 per cent of the drug and pharma produced in the country was exported both in volume and value. So officially, drug and pharma has become an export-oriented industry, the secretary said. He also termed as a myth the perception that India imports most of its medical devices.

Indian medtech industry exports more than imports

In fact, Chawla said in the surgical and consumables sector the Indian medtech industry exported more than the country imported last year. In other emerging sectors such as imaging devices, body implants and in vitro diagnostics, he said we achieved double-digit growth and our exports grew by more than double digits. In the April-August period of this fiscal, pharma and medtech have become the fourth largest manufacturing export from India. After the automotive, petrochemicals petroleum products and electronics sectors, pharma and medtech are now officially the fourth largest sector for merchandise exports, Chawla said.