New Delhi : In order to take its plans to implement the scheme of ‘Strengthening of Pharmaceutical Industry’ (SPI), for which the guidelines were issued recently, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has initiated procedures to select a government company to provide project management consultation to the Scheme.
The DoP has invited bids from Public Financial Institutions (government company) for providing services of Project Management Consultant (PMC) for the Scheme, and issued the Request for Proposal format seeking the eligible bidders to submit their proposal as per the format by 5 pm on April 18, 2022.
There are over 80 pharma clusters and over 10,500 manufacturing facilities across the country. The DoP has conducted a study by the Centre for Global Development Research to assess the requirement of already existing schemes, especially for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) following which, in March, 2022, released the guidelines for the SPI scheme, which strives to address the demand and requirement for support to already existing pharma clusters and MSMEs to improve productivity, quality and sustainability.
“The proposals will be evaluated through the Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS) process which gives weighted scores to both the technical proposals (Quality) as well as the financial proposal (Cost),” said the Department on the process to select the PMC.
PMC shall do the scrutiny and appraisal of the proposal/applications and provide implementation support for effective implementation of the scheme. The PMC shall be responsible for developing an online portal to receive the applications and maintain data of the applicants; assist the Scheme Steering Committee in drafting and issuing the advertisement for inviting the eligible applicants, coordinating with the Banks for confirming the details submitted by the applicants; preparing prescribed application formats, operating procedures for processing, scrutiny, appraisal, verification, preliminary examination of the proposals, among others.
The SPI Scheme is developed with the objective to strengthen the existing infrastructure facilities in order to make India a global leader in pharma sector by providing financial assistance to pharma clusters for creation of Common Facilities to improve the quality and ensure the sustainable growth of clusters.
The scheme intends to upgrade the production facilities of SMEs and MSMEs, to meet national and international regulatory standards, by providing interest subvention or capital subsidy on their capital loans, which will facilitate the growth in volumes as well as in quality and to promote knowledge and awareness in and about the pharmaceutical and medical devices industry by taking up studies, building databases and bringing industry leaders, academia and policy makers together to share their knowledge and experience for overall development of pharma and medical devices industry.
The total scheme outlay will be Rs. 500 crore, which will also include the expenditure for hiring the services of the PMC.
The scheme will have the three existing sub-schemes Assistance to Pharmaceutical Industry for Common Facilities (APICF) to strengthen existing pharma cluster capacity through common facilities, Pharmaceutical Technology Upgradation Assistance Scheme (PTUAS) for MSMEs with proven track record to meet national and international regulatory standards, and Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Promotion and Development Scheme (PMPDS) to conduct study/survey reports, awareness programmes, creation of database and promotion of industry – as its components.
APICF will have a financial outlay of Rs. 178.40 crore from 2021-22 to 2025-26, PTUAS will have Rs. 300.10 crore and PMPDS will have Rs. 21.50 crore as financial outlay for the same period.
DoP will provide overall policy coordination and management support for the scheme and the proposals will be considered by the Scheme Steering Committee headed by Secretary of DoP, with the Financial Advisor, Joint Secretary (Schemes), of DoP, Drug Controller General of India and industry representatives, among others as members.
The SSC would engage the services of an agency, through an open, transparent and competitive bid process to act between the SSC and the beneficiary as a bridge and catalyst.
