Indian Ambassador presents Diplomatic Credentials to President of Sudan

The present Ambassador of India in Sudan had visited Khartoum in 2003 on special duty for the Indian President’s visit. H.E. Ravindra Prasad Jaiswal has revisited Khartoum but this time as the Ambassador. His previous posting was in Bern as Deputy Head of Mission. As a career Diplomat this posting in Sudan is significant because this is the first time he has presented Diplomatic Credentials to the Head of State of the country. Some of us gathered at India House,

his residence to celebrate the memorable occasion. Congratulations Ambassador Ravindra Prasad Jaiswal.

Indian community in Sudan celebrated Republic Day with New Ambassador

The Indian Community in Sudan celebrated their 69^th Republic Day on 26^th January with the new Ambassador H.E. Mr. Ravindra Prasad Jaiswal. Ambassador Jaiswal was Deputy Head of Mission at Berne, Switzerland before assuming charge in Sudan. He is Ambassador of India to Sudan and Eritrea. Ambassador Jaiswal has earlier served in Egypt, Ethiopia and Qatar. The Ambassador is a qualified Civil Engineer and an M.Phil. in Environmental Science.

On Republic Day, the Ambassador unfurled the national flag followed by the national anthem. He then read out the excerpts of the speech delivered by the President of India on the same occasion. “The promise of a developed India beckons us. This is the new stage of our nation-building project on which we have embarked. This is the republic that our young people need to take forward and enhance—in keeping with their vision, their ambition and their ideals,” President Ram Nath Kovind said. Republic Day was celebrated with a Cultural Program performed by children from Omdurman and Khartoum. They danced with patriotic songs of India.

Happy 62nd Independence Day Sudan

There is a special kind of celebrations on New Year’s Eve in Khartoum the capital city of Sudan. The Shabab (youth) are on the streets merry making the whole night. 1st of January in Sudan has more significance than being the first day of a new year. The official ceremony that marked the Independence of Sudan was held on 1 January 1956 at the People's Palace. That day both the Egyptian and British flags were lowered and the new Sudanese flag was raised by the first Prime Minister Ismail al-Azhari. Today is 62nd Independence Day of Sudan. Interestingly most Sudanese have 1st January recorded as their date of birth. Today I have to wish 114 Sudanese friends in Facebook on their birthday. Fortunately today is a public holiday.

Supporting the National Economy with Quality Medicines at Patient- Friendly-Price

Way back in the 70s, Dr. Ahmed ElBadawi M.E.Hamid kept asking a question why there was no drug industry in Sudan. He answered his own question and fulfilled his dream in the mid-70s by laying the foundations of Amipharma Laboratories Ltd.

He started with an infrastructure for manufacturing pharmaceuticals in a space not more than 10,000 sq.mts and yet adhered to all International Regulations specified by World Health Organization’s guidelines of Good Manufacturing Practices.

The factory started after selecting a limited number of academically qualified Pharmacists, Chemists, Engineers and Technicians. During this time Prof.Hendricks, Consultant of UNIDO and Head of Department of Pharmaceutical Technology at Ghent University, Belgium, played a significant role for Amipharma. He arranged for training the personnel in Belgium in the field of production, quality control and good manufacturing practices before the commencement of production. Prof. Hendricks also selected the machines and instruments for the quality control laboratory. Amipharma can never forget Prof.Hendricks contribution.

Production started in April 1983 in small batches of limited products with two production lines for tablets and capsules using semi-automatic machines operated by limited number of workers. High quality products at reasonable prices compared to the imported medicines created an increased demand. The company had to import high-tech fully automatic machines by air to cope with the increasing demand. Within only two years of launch, Amipharma products were competing with imported products from Europe specially those of Beecham International. Beecham used to control the market of antibiotics in Sudan those days despite their high prices. Beecham responded to the stiff competition given by Amipharma by assigning contract manufacturing and a contract was signed between both parties. According to this deal, Amipharma obtained the license to produce some of Beecham products at a lower price than the imports, while Amipharma continued to produce the same products at lower prices than that of Beecham. This joint venture continued till the year 2000. Beecham today is part of the giant GSK after merger, which is the top company in the world. This contract manufacturing by Amipharma for European company Beecham undoubtedly had a positive effect and Amipharma gained the trust of Pharmacists and Doctors of Sudan. Moreover, this joint venture made the local company take major steps for development by enhancing their production lines, adding new lines such as dry powders, syrups and suspensions. It was not only the production lines which were developed but also the instruments in the quality control laboratory. Even the infrastructure grew in size and the space of the manufacturing facility increased fivefold to the current 58000 sq.mts.

Amipharma today produces more than 100 products in different dosage forms, strengths and in many therapeutic categories, most importantly antibiotics, antihypertensives, antidiabetics, analgesics and medicines for endemic diseases like malaria and stomach flu.

In its journey of 35 years, Amipharma has earned its reputation and is now a name that people trust. To reach out to all patients throughout Sudan, the company has distribution offices in Nyala, Atbara, and Medani including Khartoum.

To meet the needs of the patients in Sudan, the local industries should start manufacturing Injections, Eye Drops and Inhalers. Amipharma has benefited from this Government’s policy of boosting the local industries which allows national industry to outsource these new dosage forms through contract manufacturing. Amipharma has collaborated with leading companies to manufacture for them for 3 years during which Amipharma will construct production facilities and transfer the technology to carry out local manufacturing of inhalers, injections, eye, ear and nasal drops.

At the export front the company has registered its products in Kenya, Chad and Eritrea. It has already exported to Eritrea and registration processes are going on for other neighbouring countries.

Amipharma is driven by social responsibility and has provided jobs and opportunities for Sudanese men and women. There are 850 employees in the factory engaged in different fields of technology, pharmaceutics, chemistry and management along with the skilled workers and about 300 people in the various distribution offices.

Training opportunities are being provided to students and graduates. Amipharma  sponsors research in different fields including universities in Sudan, provides summer jobs for students to financially help them, supports medical convoys to different areas of Sudan financially and with medicines, sponsors scientific and medical conferences, rewards outstanding students in Sudanese universities, supports departments of chronic diseases in many hospitals and also supports and sponsors environment safety projects.

Dr.Ahmed Elbadawi M.E. Hamid CEO & Managing Director of Amipharma was sharing his success story at Arab-Afro Medica 2017 at Friendship Hall. Khartoum 12-14 Dec’17 organised by Arab Union for Industrial Exports Development (AUIED).

At the end Dr.Ahmed concluded by saying “We believe that the success we have accomplished was with God’s help, we were granted the elements of success in the form of financial resources, although it’s a family business yet the profits go back directly to its capital. Qualified personnel are continuously being trained in and outside Sudan. There are clear business agenda and work plans in all departments. We are setting short and long term expansion plans. Our accommodating work environment has given us loyal workers who give their best and cooperate as a family. Today, praise be to Allah, each and every product coming out of any of Amipharma’s production lines is committed to our mission of providing ‘High Quality Medicines to Benefit a Patient at an Affordable Price.

This is not the end, but the beginning to realize our vision.”

Indian Kathak Dance in Sudan

On the occasion of 70th Anniversary of Indian Independence the Embassy of India in Khartoum organised a Cultural Evening with Kathak Dance. Ms.Madhumita Roy led the troupe from India and performed various pieces based on the classical for of Northern Indian dance. Some of their performances had an interesting blend between Western movements and Kathak footwork. Ms.Madhumita Roy is a Kathak exponent having been trained by Maestro Birju Maharaj. My daughter Anavi was the host for the evening and the audience appreciated her performance.

National Unity Day of India in Khartoum

The Embassy of India, Khartoum usually has a Sudanese speaker in almost every event organized by them in Khartoum. To celebrate the National Unity Day on 31^st October’17, which commemorates the birthday of the Iron man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the speaker was Prof. Abdelgadir Elfadil Abdelgadir of the Department of Environment, AlNilein University. Prof.Elfadil studied at the University of Agriculture at Bangalore, India and later obtained his PhD from the prestigious Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

The welcome speech at the function was delivered by Ambassador of India H.E.Amrit Lugun who also spoke about the great contributions made by Sardar Patel in integrating 565 Princely States and in unifying the nation. He was a barrister, statesman, a leader of Indian National Congress and one of the founding fathers of the Republic of India.

Prof.Elfadil in his speech said the Sardar which means a leader was the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India and made huge efforts to restore the peace all across the nation. Sardar Patel is also referred as Bismarck of India but some say that his task of unifying India was more herculean than Bismarck in Germany.

At the function, the speeches were followed by two films one on the theme of Unity in Diversity in India and a documentary on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

In order to remember him annually, Rashtriya Ekta Diwas (National Unity Day) was introduced by the Government of India in 2014. Many believe that if Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had dealt with Kashmir independently there would have been one Jammu & Kashmir.

Mahatma's Mahatma portrayed in a play in Khartoum

Last month my Industrialist neighbour Ashok Bhai Parekh informed me that a play named ’Yugpurush’ about Mahatma Gandhi’s spiritual mentor Shrimad Rajchandraji will be staged in Khartoum. I had never read or heard about Shrimad Rajchandraji. I revisited the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi –‘The stories of my experiments with truth’. There I found in Chapter 26 the title ‘Raychandbhai’. This was the person Gandhiji often referred to as Kavi (Poet).The other name for Raychandbhai was Rajchandraji and Shrimad was an honorific or title. The play directed by Rajesh Joshi, written by Uttam Gada and music scored by Sachin-JIga is an award winning play. Besides many awards, Yugpurush has won the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Excellence Award 2017. The creativity and techniques in the play are par excellence. The actors were amazing with 11 actors playing the role of more than 50 people. The lead role of Shrimad Rajchandraji was very well portrayed by Parthsarthi Vaidya . Gandhi was influenced by three persons in his life: John Ruskin, Leo Tolstoy and Shrimad Rajchandraji and of course Shrimad Rajchandraji a living contact had the deepest impression. Raychandbhai sowed the seeds of Truth, Non-violence and Compassion in the mind of Gandhi. They had met in Bombay and continued to exchange 200 letters while Gandhi was in South Africa. The spiritual relationship transformed Mohandas to a Mahatma. Kavi told Gandhi how one can’t wash the blood stains of violence with violence. You need the pure water of non-violence to wash the stains of violence. He also taught him that life is temporary and the body is perishable but prayers lead us to God and the prayers remain forever. This play has had more than 900 shows in almost 300 cities in many languages all over the world and touched the hearts and minds of more than 600,000 viewers. Many of us in Khartoum were lucky to view this play at Friendship Theatre Hall on Friday 29^th September. There were two shows one in Gujarati in the morning for the Omdurman Indian Community and another in English in the evening. Ambassador of India H.E.Amrit Lugun welcomed the viewers and the Chief Guest was Federal Minister of Culture Altayeb Hassan Badawi. There were other dignitaries present at the show including Actor and Director Ali Mahdi Nouri who found the play amazing from every department. We remain ever grateful to the benevolent sponsors of the play and the joint organisers namely Embassy of India, Khartoum and Omdurman Indian Community for bringing this heart touching and thought provoking play to Khartoum.