He said the government also wanted to utilise the manufacturing capabilities of defunct as well as sick drug manufacturing PSUs and urged private companies to join hands with government in it's endeavour to revive the PSUs.
"Meaning of 'Make In India' is also 'Make India'. And we want everyone to join this movement. It is our priority to restart operations in some of the closed pharma PSUs. To do that, we are seriously thinking to involve private players in it, so that production can be restarted in these PSUs," the minister of state for Chemicals and Fertilisers said.
Ahir was accompanied by Sudhansh Pant, joint secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals.
Pant told reporters that around five major pharma PSUs needed immediate attention even as the revival of two such PSUs, namely Indian Drugs and Pharmaceutical Ltd (IDPL) and Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd, is already underway.
More From This Section
"On one side, private pharma companies are flourishing but on the other our PSUs like IDPL and HAL are incurring huge losses. We need to focus on reviving these PSUs," said Pant.
"There is no need for separate budget allocation. These PSUs will raise funds through 'self finance model' where we will allow them to sell some part of the unused factory land to raise money for revival," said Pant.
Addressing the workshop, Ahir said the government has planned to open 3000 stores by year-end across the country to sell non-branded generic medicines.
"It is our priority to provide cheap generic medicines to poor citizens. By the end of this year, we have planned to open 3000 stores, mostly on the premises of government hospitals. Out of these, 1000 such stores will be opened by June this year," the minister added.