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The Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has introduced a re-developed new application process for introduction of new courses and raise of intake in existing courses, named as Intro and Raise respectively, in its Digi-Pharmed portal for submission of applications from the stakeholders throughout the year.
The move is in line with the Supreme Court's order in September 8, 2025, and related orders, where it has been mandated that the PCI should have its portal open throughout the year for new institutions applying for the first time and existing institutions applying for introduction of new courses and raise in admission, among others.
"The Intro and Raise portal shall remain open throughout the year, subject to the academic calendar and timelines described. Accordingly, PCI is enabling institutions to submit their applications through this newly developed portal in alignment with the prescribed schedule shared by Council earlier....," informed the Council.
The Council added that the Intro and Raise application for 2026-2027 Academic Session has been already considered based on the Standard Inspection Format (SIF) submitted by the institutions as the separate portal was under development.
For the existing SIF, institutions will be required to submit the SIF as usual based on future communications by the Council later on for future academic sessions as per the academic calendar.
"Only those institutions that have successfully submitted their Standard Inspection Form (SIF) for the academic session 2026–2027 shall be eligible to apply for Intro and Raise application," it added.
For institutions which have not applied for the 2026-2027academic session will be required to firstly submit the application for 2027-2028 Academic session once Council opens the portal. Subsequently, the Intro/Raise application window will be opened for these institutions.
The new portal shall be used exclusively for submission of Intro and Raise applications only, and this application should not be considered as an existing SIF application for the given academic session by any existing institutions, reminded the Council.
The applications received till November 14 only will be considered for the prospective session as per the academic calendar.
It also advised the institutions to ensure that pre-requisite requirements and documentation are completed prior to submission. The two phases for application is one for submission of statutory documents and additional necessary documents, while the second is for updating of additional documents and information for their applicable category, after the approval of the first phase.
If the first phase is not approved, then the application will not be considered for the Intro or Raise and the institution will not get an option on the portal to submit the information in the second phase.
The Council further added that the application will be considered as submitted only after the completion of phase 1 with approved status and submission of phase 2 details by the institutions along with the one time password authentication.
If any institutions have only phase 1 status as “submitted and approved” but did not complete the phase 2 application, such applications will not be considered for the Intro and Raise consideration of the existing institutions, clarified the Council.
It may be noted that the Council has last year modified the timelines for approval of institutions to conduct pharmacy courses, the institutions can register for issuance of PCI code for submission of application for the first time and submit the statutory documents throughout the year.
If the documents of the institutions are found to be satisfactory by the Council, the institution will be allowed to submit the Standard Inspection Format (SIF) along with PERC as per the standards prescribed in scheme formulated by the Council.
If the Institution submits the SIF along with PERC before 1st November of the previous year, the application shall be processed for the current academic session, however, if the Institution submits the application on and after November 1, of the previous year, the application shall be considered for the next to next academic session.
According to the modified schedule, the academic session will commence on August 1, and the last date up top which students can be admitted against vacancies is August 15.
As reported earlier, a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India B R Gavai, K Vinod Chandran, and Atul S Chandurkar, in an order on September 8, 2025 said that the PCI has requested for the modification of time schedule, pointing out that on various occasions, it has to approach the Supreme Court with a request to extend the previously fixed timelines in view of various difficulties and the modified timeline may address this issue. The PCI came out with the proposed time schedule after a meeting of the Central Council.
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