New Delhi: Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on September 18 asked industry to take immediate steps to provide medicines at reasonable prices to common people as also control alarming environmental pollution.

"Steps should be taken to provide drugs and medicines at reasonable prices to common man. It is also necessary to control pollution," Shekhawat said opening a four-day international conference on chemicals and pharmaceuticals, "India Chem 2002".

Stressing the need for speedy modernisation of chemical and petrochemical industries to cope with the fast-growing sector globally, he said amendments in patent Law would raise the confidence of the foreign investors in the country.

He said chemical and pharma sector could provide the much-needed employment to crores of jobless as it has the potential to generate substantial job opportunities.

The first two years of the new millennium, he said, have witnessed faster growth in Indian chemical industries, which now accounted for 14 per cent of the total manufacturing sector and 10 per cent of the total exports of the country.

Presiding over the inaugural ceremony, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister S S Dhindsa said the achievements in the IT sector can be utilised to support research in pharmaceuticals and speciality chemicals.

He said India has immense potential in knowledge-based industry and the conference has special relevance to small and medium sector, which would be able to interact with leading companies of the world and update their knowledge about latest technological and commercial developments.

PTI