The Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) has opened its permanent office at Kalina in Mumbai recently, with the outgoing president Dr T V Narayana saying the permanent office-set up will help expand and strengthen the activities of the association throughout India, aimed at developing the profession and standards of the Indian pharmacists. The new office has been established at the premises of the Bombay College of Pharmacy (BCP) by the IPA Maharashtra state branch. Till now the association’s central secretariat was operating in a facility at the BCP. Sharing information with Pharmabiz, Dr Narayana said the central secretariat of the office (the present office facility) will be shifted to the new building only from January onwards as the approval of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is yet to be received. He said there was a Building Construction Committee (BCC) which mobilized Rs. 12 crore to complete the work of the building which consists of three storeys. The first floor of the building will be working as office space, the second floor has been already rented out and the third one will be used for guest-house-cum-accommodation facility. After the pooja and a small inaugural function of the new office in the evening, Dr T V Narayana handed over the charge of president to the newly elected president, Dr R N Gupta who was present at the office inauguration function. Apart from the new president, the secretary Dr Subhash Mandal, treasurer Dr Alka Mukne and other elected office-bearers formally took charge from the old team. The new team of office-bearers was elected on the 19th of September this year. Dr. Mandal was acting as the chairman of the regulatory division of the IPA. IPA has two publications, one is an online publication, Pharma Times, and another one is a print edition under the title, Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (IJPS). The editors of these publications were also present on the occasion of the new office inauguration and charge taking ceremony.
IPA has five divisions of functional categories which are operating under each chairman. In the last elections, new chairmen were also elected. Dr Ramesh Adepu is the chairman of the hospital pharmacy division which was hitherto handled by Dr R N Gupta. The chairman of the industry pharmacy division is M Vasudeva Rao from Hyderabad. Dr A Ramakrishnan is the new chairman for the regulatory affairs division. Raj Vaidya from Goa and Dr G Sumalatha from Karnataka are the persons elected for the positions of chairmen for Community Pharmacy Division and Education Division. All these office-bearers were present at the inaugural function and they also took the charge.
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