The Indian is the largest exporter of generic drugs all over the world covering about 50% of the global demand and 40% demand in the US alone. The Indian pharmaceutical sector is heavily based on generic drugs and cheaper derivatives of expensive life saving drugs. The Indian pharmaceutical companies are major players in the medical industry and are expected to keep growing at exceptional rates even though the latter half of the 21st century.
Challenges in the 21st century
Asian countries have always been the preferred manufacturing hubs for major corporations and multinational companies. The abundance of cheap labourers; be it skilled or unskilled has always been a major attraction for companies to set up factories, manufacturing units, and production facilities. India has emerged as an attractive market as well as a production base because of its high numbers of skilled and unskilled workers that bring the production costs of the companies down exponentially and with a market as big as India, the profit is there for the taking for the pharmaceuticals.
A country as big as India is full of potential but also has its own faults. The state of affairs in the Pharmaceutical industries and country has left a gaping hole in the available skilled workers needed by the Pharmaceutical sector. Majority of the pharmaceutical manufacturing units are located in remote places and hence no one is really willing to relocate to these remote areas. Decades of dabbling into generic medicine has seen a lesser importance being given to Research and development of new drugs and the hence the medical industry has fallen behind in terms of inventing medicines to counter diseases and issues plaguing the local population and with already scarce skilled workers in the pharmaceutical sector, the problem is only going to get worse.
The difference in skills
The manufacturing of medicine requires different chemicals and components which have to go through a complex process to reach the desired concoction. Skilled workers are needed to oversee the process and make necessary adjustments and changes in case something goes wrong. An unskilled worker can’t replace a skilled one and perform the same duties without any problems. Unsupervised and uninformed actions in the manufacturing process of medicines can have disastrous consequences.
NEEM Scheme Advantage
NEEM stands for National Employability Enhancement Mission and is a govt. of India initiative targeted towards providing unemployed youth with skill set and training required to be employed in the numerous industries all over the country which is facing a shortage of skilled workers. NEEM scheme is a game changer and can be seen as tailor-made to avert the crisis of shortage of skilled labour in the pharmaceutical industries. The scheme focuses on providing apprenticeship that will teach these workers the details of the job and help them make a career in the industries they are interested in providing them with employment and resolving the issue of shortage of skilled workers in the respective industries as in this case, the pharmaceutical sector.
