Keeping in view the country’s over dependence on import of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), Government of India has constituted a Task Force on APIs under the chairmanship of Hon’ble Minister of State for Shipping (I/C) and Chemicals & Fertilizers Shri Mansukh Mandaviya to formulate a road map for the enhanced production of APIs in the country. The 5th Meeting of the Task Force was held today. Several important issues were discussed regarding policy relaxations to small, medium and large API units and also simplification of the process for environment clearance for production and availability of medicines.In the meeting, Shri Mansukh Mandaviya took stock of the situation of availability of drugs and medicines. The Industry Representatives has explained thoroughly to Shri Mansukh Mandaviya that they have enough drugs and medicines to deal with any contingency arising out of impact of CoronaVirus. They ensured that there will be no shortage of any Drugs, APIs and Medicines in the coming days in India.During the meeting, the challenges faced by the Pharmaceutical Industry in obtaining Environment Clearance were also discussed. The representative of Ministry of Environment and Forest, Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has stated that steps are being taken to expedite Environment Clearances and also mentioned that recently MoEF&CC has modified the guidelines so that there is no need to obtain separate Environment Clearance, if the production of the Pharma unit is increased by 50%..