14th Foundation Day Celebrations at National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hyderabad
New Delhi: National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hyderabad today celebrated its 14th Foundation Day in a befitting manner. On this occasion, Shri V. K. Saraswat, Padma Bhushan, Member, NITI Aayog, Chancellor, JNU & Former DG, DRDO attended as the chief-guest.
Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary, DBT, Chairperson, BIRAC, was the guest of honor and delivered the message on this occasion via online platform.
Dr. Shashi Bala Singh, Director, NIPER-Hyd welcomed all the dignitaries and invitees. During her welcome address, she walked through the 13 years of journey of the institution and its achievements. NIPER-Hyd has secured 5th position in ‘Pharmacy’ category under National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2020. She further mentioned that within short span of time, the institute has cemented itself as a centre of excellence for advanced studies and learning in pharmaceutical sciences globally. Even during the challenging COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the Institute was able to complete all the academic activities using IT/IoT tools and also successfully conducted the e-Convocation on 24th July, 2020. In addition, the Institute has organized several seminars, workshops, webinars, invited talks and training programs using online platforms. The institute is introducing Medical Devices (M.Tech) as course and it contains topics related to biology, chemistry, mathematics, clinical science and engineering which are essential for developing Medical Devices.
On this occasion, Institute’s Annual Report 2019-20 was released by the chief guest.
Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Chairperson BIRAC graced the 14th foundation day celebrations of NIPER-Hyderabad as guest of honor. In her address to the gathering, she emphasized the important role played by the pharma sector, current growth in R&D and its translation. She highlighted the importance of NIPER and other research institutes alike in contributing towards the healthcare sector, especially, during challenging situations such as COVID-19. She mentioned the great significance of industry and academic collaboration in making India 100% self-reliant (Atma Nirbhar Bharat). The unique courses offered by NIPER-Hyd, such as in medical devices, pharmacoinformatics and natural products were comprehended and congratulated the achievements of NIPER-Hyd.
Shri V. K. Saraswat, Padma Bhushan, in his address said that it is indeed a great privilege and honor to have been invited for the 14th Foundation Day of NIPER-Hyd. He expressed that bright pharmaceutical professionals will have a pivotal role in the health care industry globally. In this regard, Indian Pharmaceutical Institutes and Industries have played a vital and critical role in the global pharma market and pointed out the inherent strength of biopharma during COVID-19 pandemic. He mentioned the importance of harmonic interactions of various institutes in tackling problems in supply chain, for the growth of bulk drug and intermediates exports, dependency on external markets for Key Starting Materials (KSMs) and APIs. He shed light on Pharma 4.0 for making India self reliant in dealing with the transformation from data to knowledge, understanding and wisdom. Likewise, he gave a roadmap to evolution of digital advances in technology to improve health outcomes by prioritizing, analyzing and evaluating the data. Also, that the fermentation industries need to be revived along with bulk chemical, green technologies to achieve minimal dependency on imports of pharmaceuticals. He highlighted the importance of phytopharmaceutical research in India for the future and also stressed up on the data management in various sectors using artificial intelligence. Towards the end, he visited NIPER-Hyd research facilities and opined about the training of students for carrying out experiments.