writingonblog uncensored: Chennai hosts 64th Indian Pharma Congress after a ...

writingonblog uncensored: Chennai hosts 64th Indian Pharma Congress after a ...: Chennai: More than 7,000 delegates are expected to take part in the 64 th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress here that will be inaugurate...

Chennai hosts 64th Indian Pharma Congress after a decade

Chennai:

More than 7,000 delegates are expected to take part in the 64^th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress here that will be inaugurated by former President of India A P J Abdul Kalam on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Pharmacy Council of India president Dr B Suresh said that the event is being held after more than a decade in the city and will feature prominent scientific personalities and intellectuals from the pharmaceuticals industry, research and development, regulatory departments, quality control and quality assurance, hospital clinical and community pharmacy, academic marketing, policy makers from government departments among others.

Hosted by the Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India (APTI), the two-day main event starts from Friday and organizers assure that it will nurture the next generation of pharmacists.

Dr Suresh said taking forward the Pharma Vision 2020 of Abdul Kalam, the theme of the conference would be  Pharmacy Education: Innovation, Strategies and Globalisation and more than 120 scietific speakers from various countries will be delivering lectures.

He said the state is slowly becoming a pharmaceutical hub and the conference will help in this regard. He said the state has 20 US safety approved facilities and this could boost the drugs export from India. He said 50 foreign buyers are also expected to attend the conference and the state drug manufacturers have a chance to have one to one meeting with the drug manufacturers.

Chairman of the local organizing committee of IPC S V Veeramani said that the conference will give a boost to the Indian pharma industry ranked third in the world. He said every third tablet in the world is produced from India.

Dr Suresh said that pharmacy educators in the country continue to face a number of pressing issues that threaten the quality of pharmacy education at a time when globalisation of pharma education is taking place. While the pharmacists have unprecedented opportunities in the era of gloablisation and expanding roles and responsibilities, pharmacy education too needs to respond to these challenges from a global perspective.

He said the conference intends to deliberate on the issues and recommend strategies in a globalised environment. Innovation in curriculum, best practices in teaching and learning methodologies, sharing of educational and pharmacy practice experiences from different parts of the country and globe if possible and quality assurance in pharmacy education could serve to overcome the challenges and enhance quality of pharma education and pharmacist-provided patient care, he said.

Box Factfile:

-- Indian pharma industry is ranked third in the world.

-- Every third tablet produced in the world is from India

-- Indian Pharmaceutical industry is worth more than one lakh crore

Prices of 348 essential drugs to come down by 25-30 pc

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

The prices of 348 drugs on the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) is expected to be slashed by 25 to 30 per cent, according to Pharmacy Council of India president Dr B Suresh.

Dr Suresh said that once the minutes of the meeting reaches the Supreme Court during its next hearing on December 12, the prices of these drugs are expected to come down substantially.

Interestingly, pharmacists present during the sidelines of an event to announce the schedule of 64^th Indian Pharmaceuticals Congress to be held here, defended the price rise stating that prices had gone up due to new patent law in 2005.

S V Veeramani, chairman and managing director of Fourrts said that following the patents act the patented molecules can’t be produced by the Indian manufacturers making the drug costly.

Dr Suresh highlighted a survey which stated how $550 billion medicines get wasted as they are over-prescribed. He said the need of the hour is rational use of medicines.

He also said the government is also coming out with a policy on over the counter (OTC) drugs which are sold without prescription.

State director of drugs control G Selvaraj, who was also present on the occasion said that the state has now nearly doubled the strength of drug inspectors to curb spurious drugs. Now there is one inspector for very 250 shops, he said.

He also said the state government has appointed 23 additional lab analysts at the drug testing laboratory. Now the strength of lab analysts is more than 40, he said.

Selvaraj also said that the government has spent nearly 14 crore to upgrade the drug testing lab.

writingonblog uncensored: Chartered accountants should maintain high ethical...

writingonblog uncensored: Chartered accountants should maintain high ethical...: Chennai: Noted economist and chartered accountant S Gurumurthy on Tuesday urged chartered accountants to maintain high ethical standard...

Chartered accountants should maintain high ethical standards: Gurumurthy

Chennai:

Noted economist and chartered accountant S Gurumurthy on Tuesday urged chartered accountants to maintain high ethical standards and said the profession needs to cultivate intellectual content.

Speaking during a Chartered Accountant council meeting here, he expressed concern over the deterioration of ethics during the last three elections to the councils and regional councils of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and lamented that there is no collective approach on what the profession should do.

While highlighting the bar council elections of lawyers, the ICAI elections deterioration in the last 20 years has been steep as the chartered accountants have become more materialistic than professionals.

He said there has been no discussion on how to handle this situation while urging the need for a group of chartered accountants to bring in a change in the system.

He said that chartered accountant is an intelligent profession but the profession failed to cultivate intellectual content.

He also rued that rules are being framed but are not being followed and added that the profession seeks a role model.

Interestingly, the elections to the council and regional councils of ICAI is three days away and there were also some complaints of midnight smses by some members. Members also rued the lack of standard of ethics during the election campaign.

writingonblog uncensored: CMDA issues deadline to educational institutions

writingonblog uncensored: CMDA issues deadline to educational institutions: Chennai: Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority has given seven to 10 days deadline to over 100 educational institutions to furnis...

CMDA issues deadline to educational institutions

Chennai:

Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority has given seven to 10 days deadline to over 100 educational institutions to furnish details of planning permission they have obtained.

A CMDA official said that the notice has been issued to the educational institutions to verify they have adequate planning permissions and also to ensure whether the buildings adhere to development regulations. 

He ruled out any enforcement action immediately. “After scrutinizing the planning permission, the educational institutions would be given a chance again to seek the necessary clearances,” he said.

However, the official said action would be taken against those institutions whose buildings have violated the development regulations. “Now we are not planning to initiate any eforcement action,” he clarified.

The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority issues planning permission to institutional buildings such as schools, colleges, higher educational institutions, technical institutions and research centres.