Himachal has emerged as hub of drug manufacturing

Himachal Pradesh has emerged as a hub of drug manufacturing units and meets 35 per cent of demand of pharma products in Asia, State Industries Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said today.
Addressing the 45th conference of the Federation of Corrugated Box Manufacturers of India at Zirakpur, the minister said this sector had played a vital role in development of pharma industry in the state.
The three-day conference is being attended by over 600 delegates from 10 countries.
He said the 'Invest Himachal Summit' would be organised in February next year and appealed to industrialists to participate in the meet.
He assured the business community that the government would not only clear all industrial units within a month but also provide other incentives and concessions.

On the sidelines of the function, Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner, Union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Surendra Nath Tripathi said, "The ministry of MSME has approved setting up of 15 technology centres to strengthen the support system to MSME units and Rohtak and Baddi are included among 15 proposed units. The World Bank would provide Rs 2,200 crore for the project and the state would only be required to provide land."
"Packaging is a growth area, where automation is expected to grow, but we want that the industry must meet global standards. For this, we have launched a new scheme on October 18 this year, where we will select and reward MSME units that are able to live up to the Zero Effect Zero Defect (ZED) and Rs 491 crore has been earmarked for this scheme," he said.

"Almost all packaging is now done in corrugated boxes which means that felling of forests would not be required for raw material but would be available from other sources like sugarcane pulp, paddy's residue and so on," he said.