×

UPSC Courses

DNA banner

DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

  • 09 May, 2020

  • 5 Min Read

After pharma, pesticide industry eyes make in India opportunity

After pharma, pesticide industry eyes make in India Opportunity

The big opportunity the Indian industry has to undertake is the manufacturing of active ingredients that are scheduled to lose patent protection in the next few years. While the focus has been on pharmaceuticals, the issue of “Chinese dependence” is coming to the fore, especially post Covid-19, also in pesticides.

India’s imports of crop protection chemicals – mainly the technical material or active ingredients that go into making end-use formulations – stood at Rs 9,266.84 crore in 2018-19, most of it coming from China (Rs 4,904.28 crore), US (Rs 1,050.69 crore) and Germany (Rs 614.53 crore). “Just as in pharma, the government should encourage backward integration by our industry to reduce excessive reliance on imports of technicals, particularly from China,” says experts The Rs 1,250-crore annual sales company – along with UPL, Gharda Chemicals, PI Industries, Meghmani Organics, Indofil Industries, Coromandel International and NACL Industries (formerly Nagarjuna Agrichem) – is among the few major domestic manufacturers of technical grade pesticides. This company manufactures technical-grade products that include herbicides (bispyribac-sodium, pretilachlor and atrazine), insecticides (lambda-cyhalothrin, bifenthrin and thiamethoxam) and fungicides (thiophanate methyl). (PT)

Significantly, India, in 2018-19, exported crop protection chemicals worth Rs 22,090.18 crore, a large part of it to Brazil (Rs 4,314.74 crore) and the US (Rs 4,238.63 crore). “

The one big opportunity the Indian industry has is to undertake to manufacture of active ingredients that are scheduled to lose patent protection in the next few years. These include chlorantraniliprole and cyantraniliprole (both blockbuster insecticides of DuPont sold to FMC Corporation of US in 2017, while marketed under ‘Collagen’ and ‘Benavia’ brands, with their patents expiring in 2022 and 2024, respectively), flubendiamide (insecticide molecule of Bayer CropScience sold under ‘Fame’ brand and just gone off-patent) and fluopyram (fungicide, also of Bayer and marketed as ‘Luna’, with patent expiry in 2024).

“The multinationals that have developed these active ingredients simply import them now. The government should speed up the process of granting registration for their manufacture by domestic companies once they have become generic chemicals,” Potential manufacturers are permitted to reverse-engineer proprietary crop protection products even during their period of patent protection. They can further carry out bio-efficacy and residue trials (in soil, water and plants under different agro-climatic conditions), apart from toxicology studies on their proposed generic version. All this data, including information of packaging/labeling and shelf-life, has to be submitted to the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee in the Union Agriculture Ministry.

“The problem today is that even after the data is submitted, the grant of registration takes an inordinately long time. As a result, we cannot launch any product that has gone off-patent and make it immediately available to farmers at a more competitive rate. Since the registration process is so slow, it discourages domestic manufacturing and India ends up being a large-scale importer of technical material from China, the ultimate loser is the farmer.

Source: IE


World bank logistic performance index 2023

India is now ranked 38th out of 139 nations in the Logistic Performance Index (LPI) 2023 of the World Bank. From its previous rankings of 44th in 2018 and 54th in 2014, this is a notable improvement. Earlier, the Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) Report 2022 was published by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. About Logi

Smuggling of Gold

Airports discovered more than 63% of this illegal gold. The Department of Revenue Intelligence recently conducted the Golden Dawn Operation across India, seizing 101.7 kg of illegal gold valued at Rs 51 crore. Despite the fact that India receives a legal import of about 800-1,000 tonnes of gold each year, the illicit market is thought to be

India-Thailand Relations

Both parties expressed satisfaction with the ongoing bilateral defence cooperation at the 8th India-Thailand Defence Dialogue, which was held in Bangkok, Thailand. Cultural ties and mutual cooperation that have been shaped by thousands of years of lasting historical and cultural ties characterise India and Thailand relations. Highlight

Translocation of Elephants

The Kerala government's appeal of the order of the Kerala High Court is rejected by the Supreme Court. The Kerala government's appeal against the Kerala High Court's directive to move Arikomban (Wild Elephant), the "rice tusker" of Munnar, to the Parambikulam tiger reserve was recently dismissed by the Supreme Court.

Global Buddhist Summit

Global Buddhist Summit In order to improve diplomatic and cultural ties with other nations, the Ministry of Culture recently organised the First Global Buddhist Summit 2023 in collaboration with the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC). About the summit "Responses to Contemporary Challenges: Philosophy to Praxis" is

Toppers

Search By Date

Post Feed

Newsletter Subscription
SMS Alerts

Important Links