Battling attrition, pharmas face shortage of skilled labour

Excerpts from India Business Hour on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show »

It is one of India's fastest-growing sectors, and is in dire need of more skilled manpower. The Indian pharma industry, which is battling high attrition, is looking at new options like a pharma sector skill council to help its cause. CNBC-TV18's Archana Shukla reports.

Two and half million. That's the number of skilled people the Indian pharma industry will need by 2022 to maintain its high growth rate. And that's more than double its current force of 1.1 million.

And this is a tough ask for the sector, which is seeing attrition rates of over 24%... even 40%, in some cases. And as it struggles to meet its existing manpower needs, it is looking at new avenues to get its workforce.

Case in point: the pharma sector skill council, which is now on the fast-track.

Basab Banerjee, National Skill Development Corporation says "There's an acute shortage of right kind of talent for various critical roles in the industry. So there is large amount of attrition that is happening. National Skill Development Corp by this twin engagement of increasing capacity as well as creating standards is going to ensure there is adequate availability of work force."

Over 80% of the industry's total manpower is focused on manufacturing, sales and quality control -- and that's where attrition is highest. The industry wants to address these areas by providing specific curriculum and training modules.

Ranga Iyer, Former President of Org of Pharma Producers of India says, "Most of the people leave pharma sector because they are not from the science background.. if they go through a curriculum they will be better equipped to choose fields, reducing attrition."

The council will help bridge the skilled manpower gap by providing vocational training. But industry veterans feel a lot more is needed.

One such option: "We share the profits with our people, incentives, bonuses.. we have the lowest attrition rate at just 8%," Ramesh Juneja, Chairman & CEO, Mankind Pharma said.

But the manpower-starved sector is endorsing the sector skill council in all its spheres - designed as for the industry, by the industry. NSDC, which has already established five such councils for other sectors, is hoping the pharma-focused project will take off as early as June this year.