Goa accounts for 12% of drug manufacturing in India: CM
Darpan News Desk IANS, 21 Sep, 2021 11:13 AM
Panaji, Sep 21 (IANS) The pharmaceutical industry in Goa accounts for 12 per cent of all medicines manufactured in the country, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Tuesday, while also rooting for development of Goa as a model hub for export in the country.
"Pharmaceutical industry in Goa produces 12 per cent of the total medicine manufactured in India. Around 70 per cent of the product is exported to the most developed countries in the world," Sawant told a government function in Panaji organised to promote industrial trade in the state.
"We all share a goal. The goal is to enhance Goa's export potential by finding new opportunities and entering the new markets. As we are the smallest state in India, we are facing unique developmental challenges due to our small population and limited natural resources, like availability of land. Therefore we all must work shoulder to shoulder to make Goa as an export hub, a model export state for the rest of the country," the Chief Minister also said.
Sawant said that obtaining Geographical Index (GI) tagging for indigenous products would also help increase the synergy between local entrepreneurs and those involved in traditional occupations.
"Our government is working to get geo-tagging for more Goan products. The GI tagging will help Goan entrepreneurs to involve traditional businesses, such as manufacturing of feni, khaje (traditional jaggery coated snacks) as well as farmers producing the kola chilli (and provide intellectual property rights for the products)," the Chief Minister said.
"We have moved from the 7th position in the SDG (countrywide ranking) to the fourth position in 2020. The state is coming up with common processing clusters for paddy, vegetable, food processing, fruit, coir, chilli and jaggery," Sawant also said.
The government has decided to call a special session of the Vidhan Sabha for one day on September 3 to commemorate the historic 400th Prakash Purb of Guru Tegh Bahadur.
Sonia Gandhi on Monday approved several committees ahead of the Assembly polls in Goa. Girish Chodankar has been retained as the state president and former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat will continue as the Congress legislative party leader while Alexio Sequeira is the Working state President.
After Taliban took over Kabul on August 15, Afghanistan has plunged into a big humanitarian crisis. Pakistan is perceived as having played a major role in bringing the Taliban back to power. As evacuation of foreign nationals winds down, a US missile defence system intercepted rockets fired towards the Kabul international airport.
Adityanath visited the families of those who lost their members and assured them of help. The Chief Minister also visited the 100-bed district hospital at Firozabad where children showing symptoms of the disease are being treated.
The Punjab Chief Minister reminded Khattar and his deputy Dushyant Chautala that the farmers who were protesting against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) meeting in Karnal when the police baton charged them belonged to Haryana and not Punjab.
A video had gone viral of the SDM shouting out instructions to policemen to use force to stop the protesting farmers. Khattar had told a press conference that the officer's "choice of words was not correct" but said, "if any action has to be taken (against the officer), it would first have to be assessed by the district administration."
