Celebrating 75 years of India's freedom. Come let us all celebrate this moment of glory. 75 years of democracy and still going strong is a no mean achievement considering how we regrouped ourselves from a wretched condition to now 6th largest economy in the world. Within a few days or month, we will surpass UK, from whom we got independence 75 years back, to become 5th largest. And to make this sound even sweeter we will surpass Germany within next 5 years to become 4th largest and within another next 5 years we will surpass Japan to be counted among top three economies, in the league of US, China and then India. And we will make this happen!
Sunday, August 14, 2022
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Top Indian Websites Visited in India : Dated 12-10-2013
TOP INDIAN WEBSITES VISITED IN INDIA
RANKING
AS PER ALEXA.COM : DATED: 12/10/2013
1. indiatimes.com - Rank in
India 8 Global Rank 112
7. in.com - Rank in India 24 Global Rank 339
8. hdfcbank.com - Rank in India 26 Global Rank 406
9. naukri.com - Rank in India 27 Global Rank 395
10. ndtv.com - Rank in India 29 Global Rank 344
20. oneindia.in - Rank in India 51 Global Rank 569
7. in.com - Rank in India 24 Global Rank 339
8. hdfcbank.com - Rank in India 26 Global Rank 406
9. naukri.com - Rank in India 27 Global Rank 395
10. ndtv.com - Rank in India 29 Global Rank 344
20. oneindia.in - Rank in India 51 Global Rank 569
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Online Shopping in India - Top Google Search results Dated:29/12/11
Online Shopping In India
http://www.homeshop18.com/
http://www.naaptol.com/
http://www.indiaplaza.com/
http://www.ebay.in/
http://www.tradus.in/
http://www.futurebazaar.com/
http://www.shopcorn.in/ ( lesser known)
http://www.shoppersstop.com/index.jsp.vr
http://www.letsbuy.com/
http://shopping.indiatimes.com/
Later pages show following results:
http://www.coollifeshop.com/
http://www.bagittoday.com/ (India Today promoted)
http://shopping.rediff.com/shopping/index.html
http://www.yebhi.com/index.aspx?12
http://www.retailmart.com/
http://www.fabindia.com/
Apart from that in later pages other stores who have their stores present all over India whether shopping malls, departmental stores, computers shops, Electronics stores, watches, etc,
Curiously http://www.flipkart.com/ or http://www.snapdeal.com/deals-delhi~ncr does not appear in these word searches though we see regular advertisement of Flipkart or Snapdeal on practically every TV channel. Any only if you search Megastores in India , Flipkart appears at the end on 2nd page and that also “Flipkart in the press”.
Online Travel Portals - Top Google Search results Dated:29/12/11
Online Travel Booking In India
http://www.makemytrip.com/
http://www.yatra.com/
http://www.travelchacha.com/
http://www.redbus.in/index1.aspx (Bangalore Based bus booking Co.)
http://www.cleartrip.com/
http://www.travelguru.com/
http://www.paramountairways.com/ (Chennai based airline Co. operating short distance small planes)
http://www.ezeego1.co.in/
http://www.ixigo.com/
Online Travel Agencies In India
http://www.travelocity.co.in/
http://www.primetravels.com/
http://www.makemytrip.com/
http://www.akbartravelsonline.com/
http://www.expedia.co.in/
http://www.travelchacha.com/
http://www.yatra.com/
http://www.transindiaholidays.com/
http://www.cleartrip.com/
Saturday, December 24, 2011
FUTURE NEXT CONSULTANTS WISHES YOU ALL MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY, PROSPEROUS AND GREEN 2012 MERRY
Dated: 24/12/2011
Dear Business Associate,
SUB: MERRY CHRISTMAS AND WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY, PROSPEROUS AND GREEN 2012
From all of us here at FUTURE NEXT CONSULTANTS we wish you a Merry Christmas. May the coming new year 2012 be prosperous and bring great happiness to you, your family and friends and fulfill all your dreams. We also wish that the year 2012 be GREENER than ever before.
We are proud to be associated with our valued customers in Hotels & Hospitality Industry since last so many years through our relationship with Logistics & Transportation services all over India. We have taken this relationship to next level with our our consultancy services in Business Strategy, Marketing & Sales and Domestic Logistics & SCM. In Logistics and Supply Chain Management we are establishing ourselves as full fledged 4PL service providers - Basically, integrating the services of different subcontracting companies, transport storage operations, proceed to coordinate and control them through management of the associated information flows - over a period of time. We thank you for all your support and guidance to us in the past and expect the same from you for our new venture.
We look forward to an early meeting with you so that we can let you know how best we can add value to your organisation.
Please visit us at: www.futurenextconsultants.in to know more about us and send us your comments and suggestions.
Wishing you once again Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
Thanking you in anticipation and looking forward to long term relationship.
For Future Next Consultants
Prabhakar Srivastava
Principal Consultant)
Mob: 09324278446
Future Next Consultants
Providing Innovative Business Solutions
Mira Road. Mumbai. India.
Website: www.futurenextconsultants.in
Email: info@futurenextconsultants.in
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Wednesday, October 20, 2010
THE “UN”COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2010 : Dated 21-10-2010
THE “UN”COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2010
Finally after the intervention of the Prime Minister with his crack team we made it possible at the last minute to salvage the reputation of the country in just concluded Commonwealth games in Delhi which had seen brought much of the disrepute to India on the run up to the games. We have indeed made a grand show with opening, during the entire games of 11 days as well as the closing and the world media is praising us. But is it not so discomforting that India can’t execute successful games (some say that it’s the first time a 3rd world country has hosted such games, so what, but if we were awfully adequate for the preparations then what was the need to pay 1 Lakh US$ to every participating nation as facilitation fee for getting the honours to New Delhi to organize the 2010 games?) it need the intervention of no less than the Prime Minister and all the ministries coordinating, then ably aided by media, event and IT infrastructure, people in Delhi, the Security and intelligence system, Home ministry, the enterprising people of Delhi and finally the players themselves who braved all odds and were present in full strength to make commonwealth a grand success for India. Consider that sponsors deserted last minute(even PSU companies, as the ministry had directed them), some big names too from countries like New Zealand, England, Canada, etc, had dropped their names from participating, tourists were dumping India due to dengue & security threat, unprepared ness of the games village till the last minute, threat of heavy rains and water logging due to water release in the Yamuna river by Haryana, add to that threats from various terrorist organizations who were out to disrupt the games. Day and night last minute patchwork was done to smoothen every roads, paintings, plumbing, other maintenance works, Commercial vehicles were not allowed during those days to restrict traffic jams, poor people and urchins or beggars evicted from many posh areas just to showcase the right type of growing India to the tourists, policemen at every signals and crossings and not to forget that we were aided by no rains during the games, relative peaceful handling of the Ayodhya verdict with extra caution by the govt of India and media and the sane elements in both the communities pre and post verdict, so on and so forth. So against the odds loaded heavily against us, we managed to avert the crisis, After all we are good in crisis management and are used to last minute preparations and staging shows. That is good. But how far will this event be called a successful, only time will tell.
For the moment Indian sportsmen are basking in glory and state after state have announced the prizes for their heroes, doling out various cash awards, housing plots or jobs in their respective states, but will all the things the players will ultimately receive; only time will tell. Also the people of India have now rejoiced and sang with them in tandem with the success of the team and finally we are seeing a glimmer of hope of other sports getting attention and not only cricket. But public memory, being short lived, how far the players can expect more support from the common public, only time will tell. In the lack of the sporting culture in the country, till now these sportsmen or women owe their medals to their own hard work and inherent talent. In the absence of the professional leadership of respective sports bodies, each player is left to fend for himself. Besides given the level of economic development, the leisure culture, of which sports is an integral part, has yet to strike the firm roots in our country unlike in developed countries where youngsters are encouraged to take up sports both as a pastime and as professional career. Our youths, aside from cricket, find the pursuit of excellence in various disciplines of sports economically hazardous. Coaching Institutes funded by sporting associations, where young talent can be spotted early to nurture them are non existent and the already existing sports administrators, mostly run by politicians since many years, treat young talent most shabbily- one of our women gold medalist cried out the foul that the doubles won by her is not even acknowledged by the badminton federation. Forget that, our sports minister MS Gill every now and then is confused with the name of the winners and in the hurry to take photo shots along with the ace wrestler Sushil Kumar recently ignored the coach! This leads us to the conclusion whether attention to sports bodies and the sports infrastructure, equipments, coaches etc, all will lead to the overall gain for the sports getting a lift or gain it will be back to square one with same old system.
By the way, have we achieved any thing significant in sports then? Competition? Commonwealth games are nowhere near Olympics and even can be said to be of less important than the Asian Games as you are not facing China. We have got 101 medals – 38 gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze medals tally, thanks to our excellent performance in Shooting, wrestling, archery, badminton or table tennis, etc, not in field and track events as we have only a few in them. In hockey we did raise hopes due to swell in public support in quarter and semi final matches but it all got evaporated once the Australians routed us in the finals. We jumped two places from Melbourne Games four years ago to relegate England to third place and emerge 2nd best after Australia- Saina Nehwal’s golden the last day coming up strongly after one set down, just made it possible. Infrastructure, oh , yes a few equipments and stadiums, but considering the depth of corruption in leading to the preparation and humongous cost escalation due to rampant corruption, it is doubtful whether many equipment or the stadiums or the roads, bridges, games village, will last long. One brush of heavy rains will be enough to test the tenacity of infrastructure.
And why do you miss that initially it was thought to develop the sport village and handover to the infrastructure to universities, but instead we have made 1150 flats from EMAAR-MGF, who will sell these high-end flats from 2 to 6 crores-apiece. And this EMAAR-MGF is struggling to succeed in the IPO market in India and it has already failed in three attempts to the market! And with the cost of refurbishing the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium at a whopping Rs160 crores and at one third of this cost you can get a new stadium! Initially cost estimated was 2000 crores and it has turned out to Rs 22,000 crores! Some have put the figure to even Rs 35,000 crore if we consider some infrastructure which was build just for the sake of the games. And even if we cannot add all the cost of getting better city, which in any case has to be done, but many of the costs were especially for games! At Rs 77000 crores expenditure we could have got 77 crore people who are below the poverty line people, made their life more comfortable, or increase our healthcare facilities or sanitation in villages or water supply to the hinterland? And what have we done, spent Rs 77000 crores in posh Delhi on our taxpayers money, and the quality work cannot be guaranteed to expect a 30 year life out of these. And after the games Delhi sees the same traffic police, no commandoes at all the signals, traffic again haphazard, the plants which were planted just before the games day, same rehari walas again coming up around main markets, even Connaught Place, dust flying all over again, etc, etc.
Some prominent opinion makers say that the Commonwealth should not be held in the first place as it smacks of Imperialism by a power who once ruled half the world. This can be ignored in the sense that we have inherited many good things too out of the English rule, principal being the English language, unarguably the most spoken language in the world along with Spanish, the backbone of our IT prowess is because of this language together with the maths and analytical skills of India, we got the sense of History, and hence the Indian-ness, the Indian railways infrastructure, which is still more than half we are still using even after many years since the British left us . Not all traditions are bad if it is not harming.
Till the games were not over, we were asked to keep restraint and the media too was asked to keep quite and stop doing negative publicity and concentrate on successful completion of games. Now the games are over, the PM , Sonia Gandhi have made their intention very clear that they want the truth of all the wrong-doings done by the Organising Committee from top down to come before the public soon. IT, ED, CBI, CVC, CAG, GoM have stepped in and many PIL s are expected to come up against the organizing committe, fixing responsibility in irregularities in tenders, work measurement, expenses, Excessive billings, hugely inflated equipments costs, foreign exchange violations, rental costs, maintenance costs, arbitrary contract, shoddy workmanship, incomplete work, huge cost overruns and awry schedules In each case responsibility needs to be fixed and exemplary punishment meted out to whosoever strong he or she may be and the truth come out in the open in public on exactly who and to what extent they are guilty, so that in future this sort of defame should not stare us on our face again in future. We have to ensure that in future such games are really Commonwealth games and not UN Commonwealth, bringing wealth to only a handful of politicians, babus and businessmen and for rest of the people it is COMMON POVERTY Games.
Finally after the intervention of the Prime Minister with his crack team we made it possible at the last minute to salvage the reputation of the country in just concluded Commonwealth games in Delhi which had seen brought much of the disrepute to India on the run up to the games. We have indeed made a grand show with opening, during the entire games of 11 days as well as the closing and the world media is praising us. But is it not so discomforting that India can’t execute successful games (some say that it’s the first time a 3rd world country has hosted such games, so what, but if we were awfully adequate for the preparations then what was the need to pay 1 Lakh US$ to every participating nation as facilitation fee for getting the honours to New Delhi to organize the 2010 games?) it need the intervention of no less than the Prime Minister and all the ministries coordinating, then ably aided by media, event and IT infrastructure, people in Delhi, the Security and intelligence system, Home ministry, the enterprising people of Delhi and finally the players themselves who braved all odds and were present in full strength to make commonwealth a grand success for India. Consider that sponsors deserted last minute(even PSU companies, as the ministry had directed them), some big names too from countries like New Zealand, England, Canada, etc, had dropped their names from participating, tourists were dumping India due to dengue & security threat, unprepared ness of the games village till the last minute, threat of heavy rains and water logging due to water release in the Yamuna river by Haryana, add to that threats from various terrorist organizations who were out to disrupt the games. Day and night last minute patchwork was done to smoothen every roads, paintings, plumbing, other maintenance works, Commercial vehicles were not allowed during those days to restrict traffic jams, poor people and urchins or beggars evicted from many posh areas just to showcase the right type of growing India to the tourists, policemen at every signals and crossings and not to forget that we were aided by no rains during the games, relative peaceful handling of the Ayodhya verdict with extra caution by the govt of India and media and the sane elements in both the communities pre and post verdict, so on and so forth. So against the odds loaded heavily against us, we managed to avert the crisis, After all we are good in crisis management and are used to last minute preparations and staging shows. That is good. But how far will this event be called a successful, only time will tell.
For the moment Indian sportsmen are basking in glory and state after state have announced the prizes for their heroes, doling out various cash awards, housing plots or jobs in their respective states, but will all the things the players will ultimately receive; only time will tell. Also the people of India have now rejoiced and sang with them in tandem with the success of the team and finally we are seeing a glimmer of hope of other sports getting attention and not only cricket. But public memory, being short lived, how far the players can expect more support from the common public, only time will tell. In the lack of the sporting culture in the country, till now these sportsmen or women owe their medals to their own hard work and inherent talent. In the absence of the professional leadership of respective sports bodies, each player is left to fend for himself. Besides given the level of economic development, the leisure culture, of which sports is an integral part, has yet to strike the firm roots in our country unlike in developed countries where youngsters are encouraged to take up sports both as a pastime and as professional career. Our youths, aside from cricket, find the pursuit of excellence in various disciplines of sports economically hazardous. Coaching Institutes funded by sporting associations, where young talent can be spotted early to nurture them are non existent and the already existing sports administrators, mostly run by politicians since many years, treat young talent most shabbily- one of our women gold medalist cried out the foul that the doubles won by her is not even acknowledged by the badminton federation. Forget that, our sports minister MS Gill every now and then is confused with the name of the winners and in the hurry to take photo shots along with the ace wrestler Sushil Kumar recently ignored the coach! This leads us to the conclusion whether attention to sports bodies and the sports infrastructure, equipments, coaches etc, all will lead to the overall gain for the sports getting a lift or gain it will be back to square one with same old system.
By the way, have we achieved any thing significant in sports then? Competition? Commonwealth games are nowhere near Olympics and even can be said to be of less important than the Asian Games as you are not facing China. We have got 101 medals – 38 gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze medals tally, thanks to our excellent performance in Shooting, wrestling, archery, badminton or table tennis, etc, not in field and track events as we have only a few in them. In hockey we did raise hopes due to swell in public support in quarter and semi final matches but it all got evaporated once the Australians routed us in the finals. We jumped two places from Melbourne Games four years ago to relegate England to third place and emerge 2nd best after Australia- Saina Nehwal’s golden the last day coming up strongly after one set down, just made it possible. Infrastructure, oh , yes a few equipments and stadiums, but considering the depth of corruption in leading to the preparation and humongous cost escalation due to rampant corruption, it is doubtful whether many equipment or the stadiums or the roads, bridges, games village, will last long. One brush of heavy rains will be enough to test the tenacity of infrastructure.
And why do you miss that initially it was thought to develop the sport village and handover to the infrastructure to universities, but instead we have made 1150 flats from EMAAR-MGF, who will sell these high-end flats from 2 to 6 crores-apiece. And this EMAAR-MGF is struggling to succeed in the IPO market in India and it has already failed in three attempts to the market! And with the cost of refurbishing the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium at a whopping Rs160 crores and at one third of this cost you can get a new stadium! Initially cost estimated was 2000 crores and it has turned out to Rs 22,000 crores! Some have put the figure to even Rs 35,000 crore if we consider some infrastructure which was build just for the sake of the games. And even if we cannot add all the cost of getting better city, which in any case has to be done, but many of the costs were especially for games! At Rs 77000 crores expenditure we could have got 77 crore people who are below the poverty line people, made their life more comfortable, or increase our healthcare facilities or sanitation in villages or water supply to the hinterland? And what have we done, spent Rs 77000 crores in posh Delhi on our taxpayers money, and the quality work cannot be guaranteed to expect a 30 year life out of these. And after the games Delhi sees the same traffic police, no commandoes at all the signals, traffic again haphazard, the plants which were planted just before the games day, same rehari walas again coming up around main markets, even Connaught Place, dust flying all over again, etc, etc.
Some prominent opinion makers say that the Commonwealth should not be held in the first place as it smacks of Imperialism by a power who once ruled half the world. This can be ignored in the sense that we have inherited many good things too out of the English rule, principal being the English language, unarguably the most spoken language in the world along with Spanish, the backbone of our IT prowess is because of this language together with the maths and analytical skills of India, we got the sense of History, and hence the Indian-ness, the Indian railways infrastructure, which is still more than half we are still using even after many years since the British left us . Not all traditions are bad if it is not harming.
Till the games were not over, we were asked to keep restraint and the media too was asked to keep quite and stop doing negative publicity and concentrate on successful completion of games. Now the games are over, the PM , Sonia Gandhi have made their intention very clear that they want the truth of all the wrong-doings done by the Organising Committee from top down to come before the public soon. IT, ED, CBI, CVC, CAG, GoM have stepped in and many PIL s are expected to come up against the organizing committe, fixing responsibility in irregularities in tenders, work measurement, expenses, Excessive billings, hugely inflated equipments costs, foreign exchange violations, rental costs, maintenance costs, arbitrary contract, shoddy workmanship, incomplete work, huge cost overruns and awry schedules In each case responsibility needs to be fixed and exemplary punishment meted out to whosoever strong he or she may be and the truth come out in the open in public on exactly who and to what extent they are guilty, so that in future this sort of defame should not stare us on our face again in future. We have to ensure that in future such games are really Commonwealth games and not UN Commonwealth, bringing wealth to only a handful of politicians, babus and businessmen and for rest of the people it is COMMON POVERTY Games.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
A BRIEF NOTE ON PHARMACEUTICALS INDUSTRY IN INDIA : Dated 12/10/2010
India's pharmaceutical industry is now the third largest in the world in terms of volume and stands 14th in terms of value. India has a strong US $ 22 billion pharmaceutical industry, grossing in about US $ 10 billion from exports and growing at over 15%. According to an Ernst & Young and industry body study, the domestic pharma market is estimated to touch US$ 20 billion by 2015. Further, a RNCOS report titled 'Booming Pharma Sector in India' projects the industry to continue growing at a CAGR of around 13 % during 2010-11 to 2012-13. A series of buyouts by foreign heavyweights, which started with takeover of Ranbaxy by Daiichi Sankyo in 2008 for US$ 5.45 billion, followed by Delhi-based Dabur Pharma bought by German’s Fresenius Kabi, then Shantha Biotech by France’s Sanofi Aventis and most recently Piramal Healthcare (domestic formulation business) being taken over by Abbott Laboratories for US$ 3.7 billion has also resulted in foreign MNCs taking three slots among the country’s top-five drug makers. This shows the growing interest and the presence in the Indian market in a big way by the MNCs-something they used to command in the 70s. Their market share has grown to about 25% from 15% in just two years. Indian generics companies are an attractive target for overseas multinationals, which are faced with loss of revenues due to the expiry of patents worth $70 billion by 2013 and a squeeze on margins. Overseas drug firms are aggressively ramping up business in emerging markets, which are projected to drive the $837 billion global pharma industry in the years ahead. Emerging markets are estimated to grow at more than 15% a year, compared with 4-6% growth for developed markets. Among those seen as potential targets for global drug companies are the Ahmedabad-based Torrent Pharma, Cadila Healthcare, Mankind Pharma, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Elder Pharma. India’s drug retail market grew 19.6% in the first six months of the year, headed by new leader American company Abbott Laboratories, as foreign drug makers strengthen their dominance among the top 10 brands sold in the country. According to market research firm ORG IMS, by June end, Abbott held a market share of 7% followed by domestic heavy weight Cipla that controlled 5.3% of the market, Ranbaxy Laboratories, now owned by Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo, having a market share of 4.83% is ranked third, followed by UK’s GlaxoSmithKline that controls 4.28% of the market. Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila is fifth with a 3.8% market share. Road Ahead According to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in April 2010, India will join the league of top 10 global pharmaceuticals markets in terms of sales by 2020 with the total value reaching US$ 50 billion. According to the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), the pharmaceuticals industry in India will grow by over 100 per cent over the next two years.
Technological StrengthsThe following form the basis of the technological strengths of the Indian pharmaceutical industry: -
1. Self-reliance : Displayed by the production of 70% of bulk drugs and almost the entire requirement of formulations within the country
2. Low cost of production: Due to low cost of production and availability of quality manpower our domestic production costs are almost 50% less compared to developed countries and in some cases as low as 90%. Not surprisingly, one-fourth of the world's generics come from India. This has ensured easy availability of life-saving medicines particularly where affordability has been an issue especially in third world countries.
3. We have excellent and world-class national laboratories specialising in process development and development of cost effective technologies.
4. Innovative Scientific manpower
5. An excellent centre for clinical trials in view of the diversity in population-making India a lucrative destination for clinical trials for global giants.
6. Low R&D costs: Indian pharma industry possesses excellent chemistry & process reengineering skills. This adds to the competitive advantage of the Indian companies and helps them to develop processes, which are cost effective. India is emerging as the most favoured destinations for collaborative R&D bioinformatics, contract research and manufacturing and clinical research as a result of growing compliance with internationally harmonized standards such as Good Laboratory Practices (GLP), current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP ) and Good Clinical Practices ( GCP)
7. After India became a signatory to the WTO and TRIPS agreements it was obliged to introduce product patent on pharmaceuticals with effect from 1st January, 2005. Our patent law has now been made TRIPS compliant by fulfilling various commitments under the TRIPS agreement. This has brought a new challenge to the Indian pharmaceutical industry as it would no longer be able to freely continue with the production of generics of the new patented molecules without licence/payment of royalty to the innovator company. With this, it is now imperative for the Indian industry to accelerate its efforts in R&D in this sector.The present level of spend on R&D (about 5%of turnover ) is much lower as compared to most of the developed countries (15 to 20%)
Other aspects:
The penetration of modern medicine is still less than 30 % in India. To put things in perspective, per capita expenditure on health care in India is US$ 93, while the same for countries like Brazil is US$ 453 and Malaysia US$ 189. The growth of middle class in the country has resulted in fast changing lifestyles in urban and to some extent rural centers. This opens a huge market for lifestyle drugs, which has a very low contribution in the Indian markets but growing rapidly owing to increasing middle class population and rapid urbanization.
Further, the industry now produces bulk drugs belonging to all major therapeutic groups. It ranks 13th in terms of export value of bulk actives and dosage forms. Indian exports are destined to more than 200 countries around the globe including highly regulated markets of US, Canada, European Union, Japan and Australia.
Indian drugs manufacturers will continue to seize larger market share of generic drugs in the overseas market particularly those of US and Europe and emerging continent of Africa with NPPA in place (fixing drugs prices). Further, with migrations into a new regime of product patent, the fortunes of domestic pharma industry will undergo a change in the long term and would bring with it new innovative drugs. Though this will increase profitability of MNC pharma companies, it will force domestic players to focus on research and development, besides moving towards consolidation of small players who may not be able to cope up with the challenging environment.
Apart from the generic opportunity in the product patent age, there are also other avenues to fuel business in the pharma industry. The first and foremost chance and challenge is to take the pharma business to those geographies where Indian presence is not well represented. Indian firms can take advantage of its low cost to score over others to grab a huge market size of African countries in generic drugs market also. This will be so because Africa in future will provide huge opportunity to Indian drugs manufacturers’ particularly following withdrawal of the patent suit filed by 39 global pharma companies against the South African government which allowed the sale of cheaper branded generic drugs.
It is true that we have a strong generic industry. But over time, some of the major generics companies that in the past were simply hostile to intellectual property (IP) are rapidly changing. Generics is a growing opportunity in some countries like US where there is a large market and billions of dollars of products that will go generic in next five years.
On the other hand, the scope for Indian generics companies to supply other developing countries is becoming limited because of the growing adoption of patents in the countries, especially in Asia. There are a very few countries in Asia today that do not have product patents. Also registration is rapidly becoming necessary to market the drugs in every country, be it CIS or even African countries.
It is really testing time for Indian Pharma Industry. Opportunities are huge for the capable ones as the country is attracting a lot of foreign capital and India is being considered as an emerging manufacturing base, and knowledge based sector like pharma is among the forefront and we are still favorites in comparison with China and may continue to do so in near future. But this is also a time when men will be separated from boys. Survival of the fittest.
Technological StrengthsThe following form the basis of the technological strengths of the Indian pharmaceutical industry: -
1. Self-reliance : Displayed by the production of 70% of bulk drugs and almost the entire requirement of formulations within the country
2. Low cost of production: Due to low cost of production and availability of quality manpower our domestic production costs are almost 50% less compared to developed countries and in some cases as low as 90%. Not surprisingly, one-fourth of the world's generics come from India. This has ensured easy availability of life-saving medicines particularly where affordability has been an issue especially in third world countries.
3. We have excellent and world-class national laboratories specialising in process development and development of cost effective technologies.
4. Innovative Scientific manpower
5. An excellent centre for clinical trials in view of the diversity in population-making India a lucrative destination for clinical trials for global giants.
6. Low R&D costs: Indian pharma industry possesses excellent chemistry & process reengineering skills. This adds to the competitive advantage of the Indian companies and helps them to develop processes, which are cost effective. India is emerging as the most favoured destinations for collaborative R&D bioinformatics, contract research and manufacturing and clinical research as a result of growing compliance with internationally harmonized standards such as Good Laboratory Practices (GLP), current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP ) and Good Clinical Practices ( GCP)
7. After India became a signatory to the WTO and TRIPS agreements it was obliged to introduce product patent on pharmaceuticals with effect from 1st January, 2005. Our patent law has now been made TRIPS compliant by fulfilling various commitments under the TRIPS agreement. This has brought a new challenge to the Indian pharmaceutical industry as it would no longer be able to freely continue with the production of generics of the new patented molecules without licence/payment of royalty to the innovator company. With this, it is now imperative for the Indian industry to accelerate its efforts in R&D in this sector.The present level of spend on R&D (about 5%of turnover ) is much lower as compared to most of the developed countries (15 to 20%)
Other aspects:
The penetration of modern medicine is still less than 30 % in India. To put things in perspective, per capita expenditure on health care in India is US$ 93, while the same for countries like Brazil is US$ 453 and Malaysia US$ 189. The growth of middle class in the country has resulted in fast changing lifestyles in urban and to some extent rural centers. This opens a huge market for lifestyle drugs, which has a very low contribution in the Indian markets but growing rapidly owing to increasing middle class population and rapid urbanization.
Further, the industry now produces bulk drugs belonging to all major therapeutic groups. It ranks 13th in terms of export value of bulk actives and dosage forms. Indian exports are destined to more than 200 countries around the globe including highly regulated markets of US, Canada, European Union, Japan and Australia.
Indian drugs manufacturers will continue to seize larger market share of generic drugs in the overseas market particularly those of US and Europe and emerging continent of Africa with NPPA in place (fixing drugs prices). Further, with migrations into a new regime of product patent, the fortunes of domestic pharma industry will undergo a change in the long term and would bring with it new innovative drugs. Though this will increase profitability of MNC pharma companies, it will force domestic players to focus on research and development, besides moving towards consolidation of small players who may not be able to cope up with the challenging environment.
Apart from the generic opportunity in the product patent age, there are also other avenues to fuel business in the pharma industry. The first and foremost chance and challenge is to take the pharma business to those geographies where Indian presence is not well represented. Indian firms can take advantage of its low cost to score over others to grab a huge market size of African countries in generic drugs market also. This will be so because Africa in future will provide huge opportunity to Indian drugs manufacturers’ particularly following withdrawal of the patent suit filed by 39 global pharma companies against the South African government which allowed the sale of cheaper branded generic drugs.
It is true that we have a strong generic industry. But over time, some of the major generics companies that in the past were simply hostile to intellectual property (IP) are rapidly changing. Generics is a growing opportunity in some countries like US where there is a large market and billions of dollars of products that will go generic in next five years.
On the other hand, the scope for Indian generics companies to supply other developing countries is becoming limited because of the growing adoption of patents in the countries, especially in Asia. There are a very few countries in Asia today that do not have product patents. Also registration is rapidly becoming necessary to market the drugs in every country, be it CIS or even African countries.
It is really testing time for Indian Pharma Industry. Opportunities are huge for the capable ones as the country is attracting a lot of foreign capital and India is being considered as an emerging manufacturing base, and knowledge based sector like pharma is among the forefront and we are still favorites in comparison with China and may continue to do so in near future. But this is also a time when men will be separated from boys. Survival of the fittest.
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