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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Jan Aushadhi: Not yet a generic choice -PT Jyothi Datta

Jan Aushadhi: Not yet a generic choice -PT Jyothi Datta

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published Published on Oct 26, 2017   modified Modified on Oct 26, 2017
-The Hindu Business Line

Come November, the Jan Aushadhi initiative completes nine years. But despite its recent achievements, there's more work to be done. PT Jyothi Datta writes

Earlier this year, Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ananth Kumar vowed to end the “medicine mafia” in the country by opening many more Jan Aushadhi kendras, stores that sell generic medicines at affordable prices. Kumar was echoing the mission outlined by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Budget 2016. And the initial mission was to get to 3,000 stores by March 2017.

Two months short of the year coming to an end, Mission Jan Aushadhi is still shy of that target, with 2,637 stores presently operational, according to official data from the Bureau of Pharma PSU of India (BPPI). Operating under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, the BPPI implements the “revamped” ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana’ (PMJAY), which was first launched under the UPA Government.

But irrespective of whether Mission 3,000 is completed by December, the Jan Aushadhi initiative indeed has ramped up. From November 2008, when the first shop was established in Amritsar, the campaign floundered at about 100 stores in 2014. This number increased to 1,253 in April 2017 to the present 2,500-plus stores.

And though political detractors wonder aloud whether BJP supporters have been given a not-so-overt diktat to participate in this initiative, the BPPI data shows traction in non-BJP ruled states like Kerala, Karnataka and West Bengal.

This may not yet mean that it’s all hunky dory for the initiative as there still remains much ground to be covered. But certainly, some things have worked on the ground.

Greater ownership

So what worked? The Centre has taken greater ownership of this campaign since the new Government was elected in 2014, says a BPPI insider on conditions of anonymity. The project was made more viable, upping incentives to start a store to ?2.5 lakh (from ?1.5 lakh), and distributor and trade margins were increased.

The Government's decision to allow people to open Jan Aushadhi stores outside public hospitals may have also worked as a catalyst. The Centre encouraged non-government organisations, doctors, unemployed pharmacists and so on, to open Jan Aushadhi shops, supporting their medicine procurement and reimbursing some of their expenses, says the representative.

The processing of bills is easier and shop owners are reimbursed within a month of their expenses, he claims, countering an often made complaint in the past that Government payments were delayed. “The payments are made online and are more transparent now. Now there's maximum sale and maximum incentive,” he says, convinced of reaching the 3,000-store mark.

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The Hindu Business Line, 23 October, 2017, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/specials/india-file/jan-aushadhi/article9920095.ece?homepage=true


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