“It is a red letter day, signifying the culmination of all your hard work and dedication. Your parents would be proud of your achievements and I wish you all the very best. You are all privileged to have studied at NIPER, Mohali that was established to provide leadership in education and research in the field of Pharmaceutical and related sciences in the country”------ these were the words of Prof. G. Padmanaban, Former Director of Indian Institute of Science (IISC) Bangalore and NASI Platinum Jubliee Senior Scientist, who was the chief guest here at NIPER,s 10th convocation, organized at NIPER auditorium on October 13, 2018.Prof. Raghuram Rao Akkinepally, the Director, NIPER presided over the convocation. Prof. Raghuram Rao welcomed the august gathering of distinguished guests, parents and family members of the students, faculty members, staff, students of NIPER and the graduating students of this convocation, the press and media personnel. Elaborating about NIPER Dr. Rao shared the history of NIPER - as an Institute of excellence for pharmaceutical Education and Research, the NIPER had its 1st Director in 1994 It was declared as an “Institute of National Importance” by an Act of Parliament in the year 1998. It started offering M.S. Pharm, M. Pharm, M. Tech. (Pharm) and Ph.D. courses from the year 1998.
Chief Guest Prof. G. Padmanaban, Former Director of Indian Institute of Science (IISC) Bangalore and NASI and the chancellor of central university, Tamilnadu, Platinum Jubliee Senior Scientist delivered the convocation address. Prof. Padmanaban said It is indeed a great privilege and honor for me to have been invited to address the 10th convocation of NIPER, Mohali. First of all he congratulated all the students who will be receiving the degrees on the convocation. . The success of NIPER, Mohali, has encouraged the GoI to set up more NIPERs across the country to meet the growing demands of the pharmaceutical sector. Prof. Padmanaban made audiences aware that students of this institution are in great demand by the industry. NIPER has been a leader in pharmaceutical sciences education in the country, I feel the time has come to reinvent itself as a powerhouse for R&D in the changing scenario of new drug discovery and therapy. There were some questionnaire also for pharmacist too- Should India remain just as the “World’s pharmacy” looking for patent expiry dates to make the generic versions? Should it not live up to the original expectation that it will be a power house for new drug discovery? The Government earlier had projected a “pharma vision 2020” that “one out of five to ten new drugs discovered in the world originating from India by 2020”. This has been scaled down to “one NME (New Molecular Entity) per year and 10–12 incremental innovation launches per year by 2030”.
Big pharma had the ambition to manufacture new drug entities, but long time lines, high costs and above all knowledge gap and poor basic R&D led to a set- back in new drug discovery. I feel that the Indian big pharma should adopt the Biotech companies and it will be a win-win situation. I believe NIPER with a strong R&D base and linkage to industry and human resource can play a vital role in catalysing the marriage between Indian pharma with strong base in generics and knowledge-based, small biotech companies. This was the model adopted by US Pharma as well. I urge the outgoing students and faculty to take up the challenge of discovering new drug molecules for the welfare of the human kind and animals. I wish NIPER all the very best to maintain its high standard in the field of pharmaceutical science education and also make a mark in new drug discovery that would contribute to alleviating human suffering.During his convocation address Director Dr. Raghuram Rao uttered NIPER contributed to a cultural change in the Pharmacy education over the past 2 decades. Further he added that pharmacy education needs to integrate with the modern science streams and technology developments. It should account for all the modern changes happening in the fields of regulation, quality, intellectual property, impurity profiling, biopharmaceuticals, etc. With this aim NIPER has been striving to provide leadership in the field of pharmaceutical education and research. I am sure all the alumni are making pioneering contributions and this batch of graduating students also will follow the same path.
The opportunities available are infinite, I am sure this batch of graduating students shall embrace opportunities and challenges with great courage and take the pharmaceutical profession to great heights. With all your hard-work and dedication brought laurels to this great Institution, made it No.1 in NIRF – 2018 ranking among Pharmacy Institutions in India. We look forward to global ranking too.272 students including M.Pharm(21)/ M.S. Pharm.(165)/M. Tech(23)/MBA Pharm.(35)/ Phd -28 were awarded degrees on this convocation. Ms. Tanya Ralli, MS (Pharm.) batch 2016-18 and Mr. Misbah Ajaz Lone, MBA (Pharm.) batch 2016-18 were the gold medalists among the degree recipients. Over the years NIPER has added new and industrially relevant courses. Currently, NIPER is offering 15 MS and PhD Courses in 10 Departments. The first convocation of this institute was held in 2001, it was addressed by Professor M.M. Sharma from ICT, Mumbai, a doyen of chemical Technology in India.Till now, 9 convocations were held which were addressed by pioneers like Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Prof. V. Krishnamurthy, Prof. C.N.R. Rao, Prof. M.V.S. Valiathan, Dr. M.S. Gill, Prof. G. Mehta, Prof. C.K. Kokate and Prof. G.D. Yadav. During the past convocations, a total of 2698 masters students and 270 Ph.D. students were offered Ph.D. degrees.