Usha Sharma – New Delhi
| Atul Kr Nasa, President, Indian Pharmaceutical Association during the 65th IPC LOC’s meeting |
The local organising committee (LOC) of the 65th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress (IPC) recently conducted its sixth meeting at FICCI House, New Delhi, a month before the kick off of the three-day pharma event.
The meeting was attended by Atul Kr Nasa, President, Indian Pharmaceutical Association; and other senior office bearers including Prof (Dr) Arun Garg, Organising Secretary; Vijay Bhalla, Treasurer; SL Sobti, Co-Chairperson; SL Nasa, Co-Chairperson; PP Sharma, Co-Chairperson- Protocol Committee; PK Jaggi, Co-Chairperson- Reception Committee; Dr Ajay Sachan, Associate Secretaries, KT Raghukumar, Associate Secretaries- Souvenir, Deepak Sharma, Associate Secretaries, Prof RK Khar, Chairperson – Inauguration Committee, Bhanu Dua, Chairperson – Venue Committee, Anil Kr Negi Chairperson – Hospitality Committee, P Arivazhagan, Chairperson – Entertainment Committee, Bharat Bhusan, Chairperson – Exhibition Committee, Kulbhushan Gupta, Chairperson – Press and Publicity, Saurabh Arora, Chairperson – Information and Public Relations, Shree Kumar, Chairperson – Sight Seeing, Naval Kishore Anand, Chairperson – Medical Services, Sunil Dhankar, Chairperson – Security and Surabhi Khanna Co-Ordinator. Each member put forward suggestions for the success of the event as per their designated roles.
Atul Nasa, President, 65th IPC Delhi welcomed all the members and informed them about activities related to the event, which will be held from December 20-22 at Amity University, Delhi NCR. He talked about the previously held meetings and gave details of the progress on multiple fronts. Following this, Garg explained each committee’s chairperson’s respective duties. He also shared details about budget allocation to respective committees as well as other resources required for the success of the 65th IPC.
According to the registration committee, to date, 4000 delegates have registered. A breakup of the state wise numbers reveals that registrations from southern India currently outnumber the northern regions.
Revealing the core reason behind this imbalance, Bhalla informed the members that compared to past years, the number of students of M Pharma have decreased slightly. As a result, the number of vacant seats in most colleges have increased. He also mentioned other issues which are contributing and restricting registrations. For instance, many students in Uttar Pradesh will be busy with their semester exams during the event and hence unable to register.
To resolve this issue, Atul Nasa suggested that a letter should be presented to the examination authority so that the exam can be delayed and the students can be motivated to participate in the IPC. He has also informed that a team will be formed to brainstorm with the heads of departments of pharmacy colleges located near UP and in the NCR region and if required these students will be given a concessions for group registration.
For the first time in the history of IPC, a suggestion has also been made to provide insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakhs for all the delegates for all three days. The respective committee will be working on the same. Keeping in mind safety aspects, medical services, both emergency and regular, have also been arranged.
To ensure that the attending students get the best out of the event and with a view to enhance their future prospects, the LOC is also planning to organise a job fair during the event. They are currently working with key pharma companies to ensure they send members from their human resource departments to identify and select resources for their companies.
The exhibition area for the 65th IPC is located on the Amity University campus and to date, 3,400 sq ft area has been already booked. The exhibition committee expects that the exhibition area will ultimately spread across 4,000 sq ft. Considering the large participation from students, the cultural committee has also arranged cultural programmes in the evenings.