India News - May 16-31, 2022; Vol 2 Issue 21

My New India Story: Countering Rogue Drones

By Ankita Sharma & Anagh Singh

Technology is neither moral nor immoral. It is said to be amoral and revelatory. Technology per se is a value-neutral resource and proposition. The future battlespace will be shaped by technology and technological superiority will determine the outcome of future battles. It is therefore essential that technological self-reliance remains the mantra for the future and a collective national effort be initiated to achieve this in the quickest possible time ensuring that technological developments are commensurate with our desired military capability. This underlying philosophy stands true in the realm of drones and their usage. Harnessing the usage of drones on a malignant tangent has called for the development of counter-drone systems.

Counter-drone technology, also known as counter-UAS, C-UAS, or counter-UAV technology, refers to systems that are used to detect and/or disable unmanned aircraft. As concerns mount around the potential security threats that drones may pose to both civilian and military entities, a new market for counter-drone technology is rapidly emerging. Drones are also increasingly becoming a weapon of choice for non-state groups that employ this technology for surveillance, battlespace management, propaganda, and aerial strike attacks, often too considerable. As a result of the proliferation of this technology, which is set to expand in the years ahead, counter-drone systems will become a ubiquitous. Drones today are being used by anti-state elements and nefarious players in the neighborhood to attack important installations, smuggle narcotics, weapons, etc. into the country.

In March 2021, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Government of India, notified Liberalized Drone Rules, 2021. In view of its traditional strengths in innovation, information technology, frugal engineering, and huge domestic demand, India has the potential to be a global drone hub by 2030.

The rise of C-UAS technology is largely tied to the novel threats posed by the expanding use of drones— particularly small, inexpensive systems—in civilian and wartime environments. In the military domain, small drones have been proliferating at a rate that has alarmed battlefield commanders and planners alike.

Economic dimensions of an emergent Ayush sector in India

In a bid to popularize traditional Indian medicinal products and therapies in the domestic and global market and develop the country as a hub for such commodities and services, the Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit was conducted to highlight the possibilities for innovation, investment, and the scope for the sector’s growth via a knowledgesharing platform and further initiate efforts to establish solution-oriented and robust technologies to utilize traditional Indian medicine. At the outset, the summit witnessed significant investor interest, policy discourse around key industrial challenges, and stakeholder meetings to lay emphasis on the promotion of alternate medicine in the country, making traditional medicines and medical practices more accessible and popular.

The summit resulted in an investment commitment of about INR 9,000 crore across major categories like FMCG, medical value travel (MVT) and services, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, technology, and diagnostics. During the summit, more than 70 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) were signed between countries, prestigious research institutes, farmers' groups, and industry. The commitment is expected to generate over 5.56 lakh employment opportunities in the country. A significant highlight that took the forefront at the summit revolved around the need to utilize modern technology to validate the sector, while holding the foundational spirit of these practices in place. The Summit further aimed at initiating a dialogue around the opportunities for Ayush in boosting the Medical Value Travel to India.

The Ayush industry is booming with a strong global demand size of $ 657.5 Bn in 2020 and global exports of $ 31.0 Bn in 2019. The sector has shown immense growth over the past couple of years with a projected turnover of $ 20.6 Bn in 2022. The country’s MSMEs of this sector are catching up in terms of profits and research and development expenditures and the leading Ayush manufacturing states have successfully completed the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) reforms, including Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana. These efforts have been materialised in an exponential rise in the recognition of Ayush as a system of medicine and wellness in India and the world, surging global demand for Ayush products and services, particularly since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, owing to the growing domestic and global consumer preference for herbal products and herbs based medical treatments. The Indian domestic market of Ayush is estimated to be INR 500 crore, while exports amount to INR 200 crore.

Evidently, Ayush healthcare services play an important role in the healthcare sector of our country and hold severe potential to channel the socio-economic dimensions of the country. Extensive research, training, and teaching are undertaken in each of the systems to facilitate their growth and contribute significantly to the public healthcare outcomes of the country. Thus, to further nurture the potential of this sector enough focus has been laid on facilitating a favourable ecosystem for startups and entrepreneurs. There exists a severe potential for young entrepreneurs and employment seekers in holistic healthcare and alternative medicine. The Ayush Ministry is further exploring avenues to involve current students in a more inclusive way to build their careers in yoga, Ayurveda, and other traditional systems of medicine. These medical practices are required to be augmented with the current technology and target new market segments by using non-traditional means for outreach and distribution. This has been evident through the centre and state efforts to establish several educational institutes, hospitals, retreats, and wellness retreat centres focussing primarily on traditional medical therapies and alternative restorative medical practices. For instance, the proposed Ayush sports medicine centre1 to be set up in Mangalore, aimed at helping sportspersons in preparing diet plans, lifestyle management, injury prevention, boosting immunity, stress management, and body relaxation, is a welcome step in this context. In addition to this, the bill to establish an Ayush university2 in Tamil Nadu will further provide scientific validation and research to traditional medicines and practices. Such efforts are envisaged to have a multi-fold impact on the current and future employment generation scope of the country. There is further scope for the youth in the existing and upcoming research centres and start-up opportunities. Moreover, with the conducive investment and business climate established for this sector, there exists high scope for future intervention in this regard, leveraging an incubator network and generating market access opportunities, particularly to incorporate technology and other scientific modes in the products and services offered by this sector.

Source: Invest India, Government of India

The Rise and Rise of Indian Pharmaceuticals Industry

By Ishita Sirsikar and Srijata Deb, Strategic Investment Research Unit (SIRU)

The persistent COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the significance of a strong domestic pharmaceutical sector in any economy. It is imperative to have strong manufacturing for pharma products, accompanied with robust infrastructure and marketing linkages, to provide accessible and affordable pharmaceuticals to the domestic and global customers. India, in this regard, has done exceptionally well. Despite several lockdowns and public health challenges, the sector has shown immense growth in domestic and global production.

The sector witnessed a growth of 103 per cent in its exports since 2013-14, from INR 90, 415 crores in 2013-14 to INR 1,83,422 crores in 2021-22. The exports attained in 2021-22 have been flagged as the sector’s best export performance ever. This shows a remarkable growth with exports growing by almost $ 10 billion in 8 years. The pharma exports in 2021-22 sustained a positive growth despite the global trade disruptions and drop in demand for COVID related medicines, owing to the dip in infections and positivity rates. The extraordinary exports growth has been achieved combating the frequent lockdowns and global supply chain disruptions. The domestic industry additionally played a pivotal role in fighting against the Covid-19 pandemic and positioning itself as a reliable and undeviating partner in dealing with a global health crisis. The Indian vaccine industry developed Covid vaccine with indigenous technology in collaboration with India’s research institution like ICMR and NIV within record time, on par with highly developed countries like America and EU.

Additionally, the country ranks 3rd for production by volume and 14th by value in the global market. The share of pharmaceutical and drugs in our global exports is 5.92 per cent. Formulations and biologicals continue to account for a major share of 73.31 per cent in our total exports, followed by bulk drugs and drug intermediates with exports of $ 4437.64 million. India’s top 5 pharma export destinations are USA, UK, South Africa, Russia and Nigeria. It is further pivotal to highlight that around 55 per cent of our pharma exports cater to highly regulated markets. Moreover, Indian pharma companies have a substantial share in the prescription market in the US and EU. India has the largest number of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved plants, after US and EU. The investments in this sector have also remained unhindered. During the first wave of the pandemic, the country saw FDI inflow of $ 397 million in the pharmaceutical sector.

The stellar performance of the Indian pharma industry, despite the ongoing pandemic, has been owed to the domestic manufacturing excellence, strong infrastructure, cost competitiveness, continued investment, entrepreneurship efforts and rapid innovations that the sector has witnessed. The current market size of the Indian pharmaceutical industry is around $ 50 billion.

Indian pharma companies enabled by their price competitiveness and good quality, have made a global mark, with 60 per cent of the world’s vaccines and 20 per cent of generic medicines coming from India. In furtherance to this, the sector is making strides in enhancing its global access. For instance, as a part of the country’s trade agreements, India has signed cooperation agreements with UAE and Australia. This will not only widen the global audience for domestic pharma products, but will also provide greater insight into product enhancement and enable a knowledge sharing base for innovation and investments, and global stakeholders, while focusing on the strengths of the sector for better innovations in product development. Source: Invest India, Government of India