Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister DV Sadananda Gowda said India is one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of generic medicines across the world. Addressing the Latin America and Caribbean Session on ‘Reimagining Distances’, through virtual mode Mr Gowda said, Indian pharma sector can grow to 65 billion dollar industry by the year 2024.

Referring to the supply of HCQ and Azithromycin for treatment of Covid-19 cases, he said, India has supplied these medicines to more than 120 countries. He underlined that India has earned the reputation of a reliable supplier of medicines in the world.

Mr Gowda said the government has recently launched schemes for development of seven mega parks including three bulk drug parks and four medical devices parks across the country. He invited the investors to set up a manufacturing base in India in the pharma sector. The Minister said the market size of Chemicals & Petrochemicals sector in India is around 165 billion dollars and is expected to grow up to 300 billion dollars by the year 2025.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan today reviewed the activities taken under the “Jan Andolan” on COVID Appropriate Behaviour with the Heads of all AIIMS and Central Government Hospitals through video conferencing.

Highlighting the importance of the coming months in the country’s collective fight against the pandemic, Dr Vardhan said the government has created the significant infrastructure for our fight against COVID which includes over 90 lakh beds, over 12,000 quarantine centres and more than 1900 labs.

He stated that the next two and half months are going to be very crucial for us in our fight against corona because of the winter season and the festival season. He said it becomes the responsibility of every citizen to follow COVID appropriate behaviour to curb the spread of the infection.”

The Health Minister stressed on the importance of physical distancing for effective containment of the disease.

The Union Minister asked all the heads of medical institutions to be the frontrunners in showcasing the importance of this Social Vaccine to break the chain of transmission of the disease in the country.

On India’s fight against COVID-19, Dr Vardhan said, India is continuously recording new milestones in the treatment of Covid. He said, India also has now become self-reliant in terms of masks and PPE kits which we earlier used to import.