Feature
Now develop habit of tolerating pains, illness as about 6K medicines banned in India
The Centre’s decision on Wednesday to ban the manufacture, sale and distribution of 328 Fixed Dose Combination (FDC) drugs has brought around 6,000 prominent medicines under the radar, including some very commonly used ones.
The list of such drugs includes Piramal’s painkiller Saridon, Macleods Pharma’s Panderm Plus skin cream, Alkem Laboratories’ antibacterial Taxim AZ and combination diabetes drug Gluconorm PG, among others.
Hailing the government’s step, All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) Convener Dr. Gopal Dabade said the government has taken the right decision, as “the drugs banned by the government were indeed harmful and not prescribed in the textbooks of medicine”.
“The FDC issue has gone through the legal process and the Supreme Court has given its verdict. IDMA (Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association) is a responsible body and has never advocated irrational FDCs but we do believe in the advantages of patient convenience and compliance that FDCs provide.
“As far as pharma loss of sale is concerned, it might be somewhere around Rs 2,000 crore,” IDMA Director Deepnath Roychowdhury stated.
The Centre, in March 2016, had prohibited the manufacture, sale and distribution of 349 FDCs but this was contested by the affected manufacturers in high courts and the Supreme Court.
Complying with the December 2017 Supreme Court judgment, the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) examined the matter and, in its report to the Centre, recommended prohibition of the FDCs, saying there was no therapeutic justification for the ingredients contained in them and that these FDCs may involve risk to human beings.
Earlier, an expert committee appointed by the Centre too had made similar observations.
Considering the recommendations of DTAB and the expert committee, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, through a gazette notification, prohibited the FDCs.
“Most firms have already discontinued their FDCs or have little stock left with them. It will take another 72 hours for the banned FDCs to move off the stores from the time the manufacturers tell their distributors and wholesalers or related channels to withdraw the medicines,” Dr Sujit Paul, Managing Director, StayHappi Pharmacy, mentioned.
“The notification had earlier come in March 2017. In the meantime, most of the companies have changed their formulation. The loss will be faced by the marketers. Almost all the companies will be affected,” Sanjeev Jain, Director, Akums Drugs and Pharmaceuticals added.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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