A look into the future

The postgraduate department of chemistry of NMKRV College for Women recently celebrated ‘Chem Thirst 2012’. Enthusiastic students from at least 10 colleges in the City gathered at the Shashwati Auditorium for the event.

The programme was inaugurated by director of Apotex Pharmachem P M Akbarali. The event began with a briefing about the Indian pharmaceutical industry by RSST president M K Panduranga Shetty.

Stressing the need for pursuing chemistry as a subject, director of NMKRV Postgraduate Studies, M Ramaiah said, “There are innumerable diseases for which medicines are yet to be invented. By pursuing chemistry, students get an opportunity to produce drugs for such diseases.

It is a good career option.” He said taking up chemistry as a subject also helps students to interact with industry experts and widen their knowledge.

About the growing demand for Indian drugs abroad, Akbarali said India is highly respected abroad because of its quality drugs. “African countries rely on Indian drugs to cure the diseases of their people. Because of this, job prospects in the pharmaceutical industry here have increased.”

Ramaiah said chemistry continues to remain a sought-after subject. Lectures on various areas of chemistry were given by professionals like Raghothama of the Indian Institute of Science; Sudhir Nambiar, vice-president of AstraZeneca Pvt Ltd  and Shivaramyya Kalchar, senior scientific manager of Syngene International Limited.

Students said such events are helpful in building their career. Lavanya S, a final year MSc student, said, “I’m happy that the college has organised this event. Through this, students get to interact with officials of pharma industries. We study only the theoretical part of chemistry but because of ‘Chem Thirst’, we got to know of the practical side of the subject.”

Another final-year MSc student, Savitha R, said that the programme will help her choose an area in chemistry for her career. “‘Chem Thirst’ also gave me additional information which will be quite helpful during the exams,” she said.

Students, not only from NMKRV College but also from other colleges, participated in the question-answer session and the industry experts cleared their doubts. The much-awaited event was the quiz show, which had teams comprising two students. The quiz helped the students gain more knowledge in the subject.