Riding to victory on massive mandate, Narendra Modi took office on May 26 this year along with 45 ministers and got down to work, aware that it would be under tremendous scrutiny. The Budget presented yet another opportunity for the government to craft policy and announce priority areas 100 days. There was an air of cautious optimism in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as other sectors.
On September 2, the Government presented its ‘report card’ for its first 100 days. But even though the Indian pharma industry too analysed the Government’s performance, the initial euphoria seemed missing. The general consensus is that on the face of it, nothing had changed much for the sector. Consider the fact that the sector did not get much attention, in terms of funding or ‘big bang’ policy reform, in the NaMo Government’s first budget, despite the BJP’s pre poll manifesto promising a lot of attention to the health sector and improving health indicators. Did the industry expect too much too soon?
Maybe there is a grain of truth in this, when quizzed on this omission, the budget’s architect, Union Minister of Finance and Defence, Arun Jaitley replied that there were many more occasions apart from the budget to meet the BJP’s manifesto. (Jaitley was fielding queries on the sidelines of an Express Adda held on August 27 little before the 100 days’ milestone).
But the optimism persists as Modi’s message seems to have percolated to the states. Speaking at a recent conference of media representatives of the health beat, Laxmikant Parsekar, Health Minister, Goa, noted that the current Government is clear with its ideas and streamlining of regulations. He emphasised that with the help of the Central Government, Goa would become the first state to provide health insurance to its entire population, with the launch of this initiative planned for a couple of months down the line. He also raised the point that this idea was on the agenda of the previous government for almost more than a decade but they kept extending it for unknown reasons. He opined that it now seemed close to coming true due to the sincerity and focused attention from the Central Government.
We asked key industry representatives to rate the NaMo Government’s performance in its first 100 days through the prism of the pharma sector’s needs as well as to suggest the way forward.
– Daara B Patel, Secretary-General, IDMA
– Suneela Thatte, President, ISCR
– Rajesh Desai, Executive Director – Finance, Glenmark
– Biocon
– Lupin
