🔊 Take a moment and listen

The ministry of health and family welfare will invest close to INR 250 crore ($50 million) in the e-governance initiative of Central Drugs Standard Control Organization's (CDSCO's). The initiative aims to enable transparency and efficiency in the working of the CDSCO.

The application developed by a New York-based technology solutions provider MGRM, will make available details of licensing, regulation, monitoring and even inspection audits. Thus this system will work not only for companies, who will be able to submit all applications and data online, but will also smoothen the interface between various officials of the drug controller's office. So much so that companies will even be able to file, track and review their patent applications online. That apart, the project will also aid companies in tracking the movement of their applications and would then be able to base their development targets on this. The model of work distribution entailed herein will ensure privacy and data protection, unauthorized attempt to access information will immediately send off an alert making it difficult to break into the system

The first phase of the project is expected to be completed in a year, following which CDSCO, along with MGRM, will float a national tender inviting developers to bid for the project. The project itself is expected to be up and running by 2013.

The Drug Controller General of India's (DCGI's) e-governance initiative has received interest from the World Health Organization and Health Canada