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The Indian pharmaceutical industry is renowned for its competitiveness in both cost efficiency and research and development. According to the Economic Survey 2022-23, the industry has maintained its growth momentum even after the pandemic, and it is projected that the domestic pharmaceutical market will reach USD 130 billion by 2030. In FY21, the country’s pharmaceutical exports grew by a healthy 24%, driven by the demand for critical drugs and supplies due to COVID-19, which were sent to over 150 countries. However, the sector faces challenges such as shortages of key medications, quality and regulatory issues, and fluctuating drug pricing due to a lack of policy stability.

Against this backdrop, the Bombay Chamber, under the auspices of the BFSI Committee, organised the 7th Pharma Workshop in association with Title Sponsor, Howden Insurance, Co-sponsor, Go Digit and Knowledge Partner, PwC. The workshop’s theme was Managing Risks and Liabilities in Pharma. Mr Praveen Vashisht, Chairman, Howden India, Howden Insurance Brokers India, welcomed the audience and set the tone for the workshop by discussing three risks affecting the Pharma sector: competitive environment rationale, operational and financial risks, and reputational risks. Mr Vashisht also discussed how Covid-19 exposed weaknesses in the Insurance and Pharma Industries and the impact of reduced demand, cyber threats, and supply chain disruption on these industries. He further elaborated on the three different risk management areas for organisations: measuring the risk, managing the risk, and monitoring the risk.

In his keynote address, Mr Srinivas Lanka, Mentor, ElixGlobal, highlighted the importance of each and every risk in the pharma industry. He also discussed how earlier, there used to be 70% API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) imports from China, but the scenario has changed now. In terms of value, currently there is only $3bn API Imports from China compared to $23bn earlier. Mr Lanka spoke about the numerous risks in the pharma industry due to supply chain disruptions, resulting in businessmen losing opportunities and hampering the industry’s growth. He stated that this is now the era of exporting Indian pharmaceutical products in international markets, and every country is facing issues due to forums and their correspondences. He further noted that it is becoming increasingly difficult to develop a large molecule due to supply chain interruptions for manufacturers.

The first session of the day was an interactive fireside conversation on the topic Post-Pandemic Recovery and Current State of the Indian Pharma Sector: Issues & Challenges between Ms Smriti Mishra, Partner, PwC, and Mr Ramesh Swaminathan, CFO, Lupin, which highlighted the operational risk in supply chain management. Mr Swaminathan emphasised the growing importance of the ECLGS scheme and the effect of Govt’s PLI schemes on imports, calling it a strategic move by the government. He highlighted how, moving ahead, cost dynamics are not going to be easy, and the cost of manufacturing is going to increase. In terms of understanding Good Manufacturing Processes (GMPs), India is the best in the world and has a good skill set. However, there is a need for Industry and Government academia collaboration.

The panel discussion on the topic: Regulatory Environment for Indian Pharma Business had Mr Ankur Jain, Partner, Risk Assurance, PwC, as the moderator, and Mr Lanka, Mr Amit Pandey, EVP & General Counsel, GSK Pharmaceuticals, and Dr Milind Antani, Lead – Pharma, Healthcare, Medical Device and Digital Health Practice, Nishith Desai Associates, as the panellists. They deliberated on the Pharma Competition Act, various archaic laws criminalising the pharma industry that are still active today, the need to have an intermediary for small pharma companies that don’t have their labs to ensure quality, and the need to increase awareness of the various laws that govern the pharma sector.

The final panel discussion of the day on the topic: Emerging Risks, Trends and Risk Transfer Solutions in the Indian Pharma Sector, featured Mr Amit Solanki President, Howden India as the Moderator and Mr Martin Hawkins, Head of Liability, Newline Syndicate; Mr Richard Kelly, Head of Life science, Clinical Trials Insurance Services and Ms Anisha Udeshi, Director Global Insurance and Risk, Cipla as the panellists discussed the need to impart risk training to employees with a qualified risk manager, among other pertinent issues.

Moody’s Investors Service recently revised its estimate for India’s economic growth in 2023 from 4.8 per cent to 5.5 per cent. This is due to the significant increase in capital expenditure in the recent Union Budget and the country’s resilient economic momentum. The government had allocated Rs 10 lakh crore for capex, which is 3.3 percent of GDP, and if implemented effectively, this could bring India’s real GDP growth close to 7 per cent in FY24, according to the RBI Bulletin.

However, India’s GDP growth rate in the December 2022 quarter decreased to 4.4 per cent from 6.3 per cent in the September 2022 quarter, according to government data. Moody’s also predicts that the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will raise interest rates by 50 to 75 basis points over the next two to three meetings, potentially taking the terminal rate to as high as 5.25 per cent to 5.50 per cent.

Moody’s stated that the economic momentum of several major emerging market countries such as India, Brazil, Mexico, and Turkey has been more robust than anticipated despite the tightening of the global and domestic financial environment last year. The rating’s agency also predicted that a reduction in monetary policy tightening in the US would stabilise or even enhance capital flows to emerging markets.

Nevertheless, emerging markets are susceptible to increased financial market volatility until inflation in developed economies is under control, according to Moody’s.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under the Ministry of Communications has offered the usage of 5G Test Bed free of cost to Start-ups and MSMEs recognised by the Government of India up to January 2024. All 5G stakeholders – Industry, Academia, Service Providers, R&D Institutions, Govt. Bodies, Equipment Manufacturers etc. can utilise this facility at a very nominal rate. This has been announced in order to encourage usage of the Test Bed and give a fillip to the development of indigenous technologies/ products in line with ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ vision. Several start-ups and companies are already using the Test Bed for testing their products and services.

In March, 2018, keeping in view India’s specific requirements and to take lead in 5G deployment, the Department of Telecommunications approved financial grant for the multi-institute collaborative project to set up ‘Indigenous 5G Test Bed’ in India with total cost of Rs.224 Crore. The eight collaborating institutes in the project are IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IISc Bangalore, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER) and Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT). 

The 5G Test Bed is available at five locations – Integrated Test Bed at CEWiT/ IIT Madras and other Test Beds are at IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Kanpur and IISc Bangalore. CEWiT/ IIT Madras offers end to end Test Bed with various testing services for RAN Level, PHY Level etc. and other test equipment. IIT Hyderabad has facilities for gNB Testing, UE Testing, end to end interoperability testing and NB-IoT testing, while IISC Bangalore hosts the V2X and 5G open-source testbed, IIT Kanpur hosts the base-band Test Bed and IIT Delhi hosts the NB-IoT and VLC Test Bed.

Time Limit for exercise of option for pension on higher wages extended till 3rd May 2023.

The notice can be viewed on:

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the extension of the term of the 22nd Law Commission of India until August 31st, 2024. The tenure of the current 22nd Law Commission of India is scheduled to end on February 20th, 2023. The various Law Commissions have made important contributions towards the progressive development and codification of the laws of the country. To date, the Law Commission has submitted 277 reports.

The Chairperson and Members of the 22nd Law Commission have recently taken office and have taken up several pending projects for examination and report, which are works in progress. The Commission will consist of: a full-time Chairperson; four full-time Members (including the Member-Secretary); the Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs, as an ex-officio Member; the Secretary, Legislative Department, as an ex-officio Member; and no more than five part-time Members.

During its extended term, the Law Commission will continue to discharge its existing responsibilities, as bestowed upon it by the order dated February 21st, 2020. These responsibilities include:

• Identifying laws that are no longer relevant and recommending the repeal of obsolete and unnecessary enactments.
• Suggesting the enactment of new legislation as may be necessary to implement the Directive Principles and to attain the objectives set out in the Preamble of the Constitution.
• Considering and conveying to the Government its views on any subject relating to law and judicial administration that may be specifically referred to by the Government through the Ministry of Law & Justice (Department of Legal Affairs).
• Considering requests for providing research to any foreign countries as may be referred to it by the Government through the Ministry of Law & Justice (Department of Legal Affairs).
• Preparing and submitting to the Central Government, from time to time, reports on all issues, matters, studies, and research undertaken by it and recommending such reports for effective measures to be taken by the Union or any State.
• Performing such other functions as may be assigned to it by the Central Government from time to time.

Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong recently launched cross-border linkage between India and Singapore using their respective Fast Payment Systems, viz. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and PayNow.

The UPI-PayNow linkage will enable users of the two fast payment systems in either country to make convenient, safe, instant, and cost-effective cross-border funds transfers using their respective mobile apps. Funds held in bank accounts or e-wallets can be transferred to / from India using just the UPI-id, mobile number, or Virtual Payment Address (VPA).

As per the RBI, to begin with, State Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank and ICICI Bank will facilitate both inward and outward remittances while Axis Bank and DBS India will facilitate inward remittances. For Singapore users, the service will be made available through DBS-Singapore and Liquid Group (a non-bank financial institution). More banks will be included in the linkage over time.

Customers of the above participating banks can undertake cross-border remittances to Singapore using the bank’s mobile banking app / internet banking. To begin with, an Indian user can remit up to ₹60,000 in a day (equivalent to around SGD 1,000). At the time of making the transaction, the system shall dynamically calculate and display the amount in both currencies for convenience of the user.

The Reserve Bank of India has released preliminary guidelines outlining the minimum capital requirements for market risk, as part of its efforts to align banking regulations with the standards set forth by Basel III. The central bank has invited comments on the proposed regulations until April 15, 2023, with the final rules slated to take effect on April 1, 2024.

Under the proposed guidelines, securities in banks’ trading books will be classified separately from those in their banking books, with instruments that can be included in the trading book, which are subject to market risk capital requirements; and those to be included in the banking book which is subject to credit risk capital requirements, listed out.

Banks will be required to establish well-defined policies, procedures, and documented practices for determining which instruments are included or excluded from the trading book when calculating their regulatory capital.

The RBI defines market risk as the potential for losses in both on- and off-balance-sheet positions arising from changes in market prices, with interest rate and equity risk applicable to trading book instruments, and foreign exchange risk (including gold and precious metals) relevant to both trading and banking book instruments.

Read detailed guidelines here.

According to data from the commerce ministry, India’s exports in January declined by 6.58% to $32.91 billion, as compared to $35.23 billion in the same month last year. Meanwhile, imports in January also fell by 3.63% to $50.66 billion from $52.57 billion in January 2022. The trade deficit in January decreased to $17.75 billion from $23.76 billion in December.

However, between April and January this fiscal year, the country’s merchandise exports increased by 8.51% to $369.25 billion, while imports rose by 21.89% to $602.20 billion.

Despite the decline in exports in January, India’s external position remains stable due to a reduction in the merchandise trade deficit, higher services exports, and higher-than-expected remittance growth. Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das anticipates that India will receive more overseas inflows and the current account deficit will ease going forward.

In the third quarter, the situation showed signs of improvement as imports decreased due to lower commodity prices, resulting in a narrowing of the merchandise trade deficit.