Pharmacy colleges are under the scanner, with the Centre empowering the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) to restrict intake and improve the quality of education to make students industry-ready.
Indian Pharmaceutical Congress Association general secretary and PCI member T.V. Narayana, who was here to attend the second international conference of Society of Pharmacognosy, told The Hindu on Sunday that, with the Centre deciding to liberate pharmacy education from the dual control of PCI and AICTE, the former had decided to initiate measures to revise the syllabus for need-based education.
Dr. Narayana said dual control, had led to mushrooming of colleges.
The number of colleges, which was 400 in 2007, went up to 1,150, thanks to permission accorded liberally by the AICTE, he said.
He said the Centre had recently issued a notification for regulation of B.Pharm and M.Pharm courses. Incidentally, PCI is contemplating taking stringent action against colleges found offering sub-standard training by not providing proper facilities to students.
