More on Covid-19

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet on Friday approved two policies to promote production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and manufacture of medical equipment to meet increased demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.Assuring Rajya Sabha that the government was ramping up production of APIs, junior minister for chemicals and fertilisers Mansukh L Mandaviya said the pharmaceutical sector imported some of APIs while also exporting some quantities. APIs are the active ingredients contained in a medicine.“It’s true that there are several APIs which we largely import from China. We have identified 53 such APIs for which we are dependent on China. We have set up an inter-ministerial committee to look into how we can produce more APIs in the country and we have started working on it,” he said.He added that the government had taken steps to contain Covid-19 and a group of ministers was working on ways to contain the virus spread.