Mumbai: The Gujarat Food and Drugs Control Administration (FDCA) is all set to make Non-Conviction Certificates (NCC) and Performance Certificates (PC) for pharma companies available online before the 10th Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor Summit (VGGS)-2024 takes off in Gujarat.
Issuance of certificates online is also a part of strengthening of the drug regulatory system in Gujarat.
The 10th VGGS- 2024, which is the state government’s flagship investment summit, will be held between January 11 and 13, 2024 after a five-year gap. Over 220 MoUs worth Rs. 15,000 crore have already been signed online through Investor Facilitation Portal (IFP) as a precursor to the VGGS-2024.
Gujarat FDCA Commissioner Dr. H G Koshia, who is also the Pharma Guardian Officer of Gujarat, has urged the pharma companies interested in investing in Gujarat to log on to the IFP and register with their respective names, addresses, the amount of investment, employment generation data and the detailed project report (DPR).
According to Dr. Koshia, “With the successful completion of the trial runs and final Google hosting currently being done on the mobile application, Gujarat FDCA recently will soon roll out the online mechanism for granting NCC and PC to pharma companies towards Ease of Doing Business (EoDB). The rolling out of NCC and PC online will also complement the Gujarat FDCA’s flagship m-governance programme.”
NCC is required to be produced by the manufacturers to the procurement agency as part of the tender condition for government medicines supply. Mostly MSMEs take part in the tender process to fulfil the state government supply. NCC provides a declaration in the prescribed proforma, stating that the licensee has not been convicted for the violations of provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics (D&C) Act, 1940 and Rules 1945 for sales units.
The m-governance programme has also concluded all three phases of safety audit and is also ready to be rolled out soon. It will benefit 55,600 stakeholders in the state including the 3,800 allopathic drug manufacturers and 50,000 drug retailers and wholesalers. The m-governance will merge all the online platforms at one place for faster, real time access towards getting status of the application in a seamless manner.
A mobile application for all the stakeholders including the manufacturers and retailers is aimed at bringing in accountability, transparency, inclusivity, uniformity and timeliness without disrupting the existing systems and protocols.
The National Informatics Centre (NIC), under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), is the technology partner of the Government of India. NIC was established in 1976 with the objective to provide technology-driven solutions to Central and State Governments. Its mandate is to act as technology partner of the government, design and develop Information Technology (IT) systems for the government, provide Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) Infrastructure to the government, explore and advise on use of emerging technologies.
