A new programme to promote R&D in pharma to be taken up through the centre of excellence is a welcome move by the government in this year’s budget. We are delighted with the government’s initiative for encouraging sunrise sectors like Medtech. The implementation of dedicated multidisciplinary courses for medical devices to be supported by the government in institutions to ensure skilled manpower for futuristic medical tech and high-end manufacturing and research is another much-needed move by the government. We highly welcome the implementation of such measures. The government is focussing on enhancing the healthcare infrastructure of the country through these efforts. The establishment of three centres of excellence for artificial intelligence to enable ‘Make AI for India’ and ‘Make AI work for India’ is another significant step by the government to enhance India’s digital prowess. However, we are a bit disappointed by no announcement on any sort of GST changes and simplified regulations. Also, we were expecting that the government would allocate separate funds for R&D, formulation and APIs. So, I hope these factors will be taken into consideration in the coming years.
