A bill to declare six institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research as institutes of national importance and to provide for a council to ensure the development of pharmaceutical education and research was passed in Lok Sabha on Monday.
Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya replied to the debate on the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
The bill seeks to amend the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research Act, 1998 under which NIPER at Mohali in Punjab was declared an institute of national importance.
The Act was subsequently amended in 2007 to empower the Central Government to establish similar national institutes in different parts of the country and six new institutes were established at Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Hajipur, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Raebareli in 2007-08.
The bill provides that every institute established after the commencement of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (Amendment) Act, 2021 shall also be an institution of national importance.
The bill seeks to rationalise the board of governors of each such institute from its existing strength of 23 to 12 members and widen the scope and number of courses run by such institutes, including graduate and post-graduate degrees, doctoral and post-doctoral distinctions and research in pharmaceutical education.