Policy intervention is holding back drug discovery in India, said Satish Reddy of Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL), in an interview with CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston.

Pointing at China's example, Reddy said, “It is mainly the policy intervention. If you see the Chinese government – if you look at two-three things that they did, the most important thing being the government funding almost about $3 billion for innovation way back in 2007 ... that might be difficult for India to do to a certain extent but they could start small. That is one thing India can do in terms of at least having a grant, which would help do that."

"However, the bigger thing is this whole thing about talent. You also need to create that ecosystem, you also need to get the requisite talent for that, they launched something called the 1000 talents programme, which was basically to attract people," added Reddy.

From consumption space, Sanjeev Mehta of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), in the conversation with Bhan, said that competitors, on a level-playing field, were good for consumers.

In terms of Indian government being partisan towards a few companies like Patanjali, Mehta said, “Let me look at it from our lens. First is, India is not a zero-sum game, it is not that if someone wins, we will lose. The second important beat is that I think competitors – if it is on a level-playing field - are good for the consumers. I think a good competitor brings out the best in HUL.”

First Published:Feb 18, 2019 9:02 AM IST