|
From the time of independence,
no sector of the Indian industry has escaped being controlled by the burdensome
socialistic policies of the Indian government, manifested through the so-called
license permit raj. The pharmaceutical industry in India is no exception,
and especially because of its social relevance, has been subject to
large scale government intervention.
However, India's pharmaceutical industry is testimony to the fact
that not all government regulation is automatically detrimental to the
development and growth of an industry. On the contrary, it is entirely
possible that India may never have developed its own indigenous
pharmaceutical industry had it not been for the
deep-rooted government intervention. In fact, the Indian government's
interventions in the pharmaceutical industry can well be considered a
case of astute strategic thinking. Kenichi Ohame, the author of the
famous book, The Mind of the Strategist, can very well learn a thing or
two from our very own babus at the Delhi Durbar.
Of course, none of the above negates the fact that India has
always had a grand pharmaceutical tradition in the form of Ayurveda
and other native medical practices. Traditional Indian medicine and
medical practitioners have historically made seminal contributions to
the treatment of all kinds of human diseases for thousands of years,
and many modern medical interventions are based on procedures
originally developed by traditional Indian physicians.
For example, it is little known that the commonplace cataract
surgery which today benefits billions of people across the world everyday
was first performed by Sushruta, one of the earliest surgeons of recorded
history, in the 6th century BC. |
