Our culture, our heritage, and our tradition—these are words that echo from major national stages to the global arena. The government created a dedicated Ministry of AYUSH, and even the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine was established in India to promote Ayurveda and Unani worldwide.

However, the reality behind the scenes tells a completely different story.

Recently, the Finance Ministry decided to sell a profitable 'Mini Ratna' government company to private hands, which used to supply affordable and pure traditional medicines to the poor across the country. We are talking about IMPCL (Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation Limited) being handed over to Delhi-based Skymap Pharmaceuticals. Let's break down the truths and hidden data behind this strategic disinvestment, which the mainstream media won't tell you

Ideology vs. Economic Policy: Why This Contradiction?

Here, the thinking of two different government departments is clashing head-on:

- Ideology (AYUSH Ministry): To promote traditional medicine and culture both nationally and internationally.

- Economic Policy (Finance Ministry/DIPAM): "The government has no business to be in business." That is, the government's argument is that when large private players like Patanjali, Dabur, Baidyanath, and Hamdard are already manufacturing traditional medicines worth thousands of crores in the country, what is the need for the government to run a factory itself?

But the biggest question remains—if a government company was earning a profit by making affordable and pure medicines, what was the absolute hurry to hand it over to private hands?

To understand this hurry, we have to open those government files where massive earnings targets are set every year. After all, what arguments is the government giving behind this sell-off? Let's take a look.

Why Did the Government Sell It Then? (The Government's Argument)

When the company was making such a good profit, what is the government's justification behind selling it? There are two major policies of the government behind this:

- Strategic Disinvestment Policy: The government has a broader policy where it wants to completely exit non-strategic sectors (like traditional medicine manufacturing). The government believes that by moving away from these sectors, it can focus its full attention and resources on core areas (like infrastructure and governance).

- Asset Monetization Targets: In this year's budget (FY27), a massive target of raising ₹80,00,000,000 (80,000 crore) through disinvestment and asset monetization has been set. This step has been taken precisely to meet this ₹80,000 crore target. Let us tell you that the 'in-principle' approval for this deal was given by the CCEA (Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs) back in 2017, which has only now been finalized.

This policy-level argument of the government might be entirely correct from its perspective, but when it moves out of the balance sheet and reaches the trust of ordinary patients, the question is no longer just about money. Some common people ask, "Even if it is sold, what changed? Only the shop has changed." But in healthcare, it doesn't work that way.

"Even If It Is Sold, So What?" — The Question of Quality and Trust

Many people think that the company will remain, only the owner has changed. And no medicine can run in the country without registration/approval. But a world of difference arises between private and government ownership:

- Approval vs. Monitoring: The government company possessed an automatic 'Trust'. Doctors and common people trusted it blindly because the government itself was manufacturing it, so the risk of heavy metals or adulteration was next to none.

- The Risk of Compromise: Even after getting approval in the private sector, it has often been observed that the chances of compromising on quality increase for the sake of cost-cutting. Now the government will have to conduct very strict and regular monitoring on this, which everyone knows is difficult in our bureaucratic system.

Let's assume for a moment that the new private owner will maintain the quality... but the price at which this entire deal has been finalized is the most shocking twist of this report. After all, what all has the government handed over into private hands under the cover of this small blanket of ₹121 crore?

₹121 Crore vs Actual Assets: The Real Valuation Angle?

The most shocking aspect for an investigative piece here is that raising questions on "Valuation" becomes necessary. If we look at the hidden asset data of IMPCL, our eyes will be left wide open.

Through open competitive bidding, the government has handed over this company to M/s Skymap Pharmaceuticals Private Limited (a Delhi-based company owned by Sanjeev Kalra and Kanav Kalra) for just ₹121,00,94,400 (approx ₹121 crore). But what is the private buyer getting in return for this ₹121 crore?

According to the official PIM (Preliminary Information Memorandum):

- 35.81 Acres of Prime Land Asset: The main manufacturing unit of IMPCL is spread across a massive and prime lush-green campus of 35.81 acres in Almora (Mohan), Uttarakhand.

- Massive Industrial Infrastructure: Ready-made large manufacturing plants, sophisticated testing laboratories, modern research and development (R&D) facilities, and massive raw material warehouses are already established across this entire campus.

- 1,200 Patents and Formulations: The most valuable asset—IMPCL holds patents, secret recipes, and government approvals for approximately 1,200 classical and proprietary Ayurvedic and Unani formulations.

IMPCL's Profit Record (The Company Was Not in a Loss):

- FY 2022-23: ₹20.81 crore profit

- FY 2023-24: ₹12.80 crore profit

- FY 2024-25: ₹17.65 crore profit (After a dip, the company had bounced back even better!)

Selling a company that could earn this much profit on its own over the last 5 years for a small amount equivalent to just its 5–6 years of profit (₹121 crore)—where 35.81 acres of land and the entire factory are being received almost for free—doesn't this look like a straight case of "Undervaluation"? For whose benefit was such a massive facility given away so cheaply?

This undervaluation does not just hit the government exchequer; rather, it is going to have a hidden impact on the country's healthcare supply chain that the mainstream media has not even deemed necessary to touch upon yet.

UNTOLD ANGLE: The "CGHS" and National Health Target Punch

This is a point that no mainstream media has properly raised so far, and this is the worst aspect of this privatization:

- The Critical Supply Chain of Government Medicines: You must know that the biggest customer of IMPCL is not an ordinary shop, but rather the CGHS (Central Government Health Scheme) and government dispensaries and hospitals across the country. Here, common people, government pension-holders, and the poor used to get pure Ayurvedic and Unani medicines absolutely free or at very cheap rates.

- The Downfall Angle (Impact on Patients): When Skymap completely commercializes this company, its very first step will be to stop manufacturing those classical Unani and Ayurvedic formulations where the profit margin is low.

- Corporate Greed vs Patient Care: Private players always focus on manufacturing "Mass Consumption" products (like Chyawanprash, hair oils, or beauty gels) because there is fat profit there. They will not manufacture cheap and critical traditional medicines. This will directly impact those lakhs of patients who are completely dependent on government hospitals for pure and genuine raw material-based traditional medicines.

But the cost of this commercial profit-making will not have to be borne by the patients alone. Inside this 35.81-acre campus, the human hands that have been running this factory for the last 45 years now have the sword of retrenchment (layoffs) hanging over them. And this threat doesn’t stop at the factory gates; it bleeds right into the surrounding hills of Uttarakhand.

The Unreported Grassroots Reality: Threat to Local Herb Suppliers

For decades, IMPCL sustained an entire mountain ecosystem by directly sourcing pure herbs from local Himalayan farmers and tribal communities, securing livelihoods for hundreds of families.

Now, with Delhi-based Skymap Pharmaceuticals taking over, corporate cost-optimization is the new rule. The looming fear is that Skymap will ditch these traditional, small-scale local suppliers for cheaper, bulk-cultivated variants from the plains—shattering the rural economy of the region.

This loss of indirect rural livelihood brings us straight to the crisis brewing inside the factory walls—the fate of the workers themselves.

The Human Cost: Layoffs and the Employment Crisis

This is the most sensitive point of this entire matter, because of which the employees of IMPCL in Almora (Uttarakhand) have been constantly protesting for the past several months:

- The Deception of the Lock-in Period: There is usually a 1-year lock-in period in the disinvestment agreement during which employees cannot be laid off. But after that, the private management has full authority to lay off "redundant staff". The sword hangs first and foremost over the contract workers (theka karmchari) of IMPCL.

- Reduction in Salaries and Perks: The job security, medical benefits, and allowances that came with a government job will vanish as soon as the new HR policy of the private sector arrives.

To justify laying off employees and this retrenchment, the private corporate always puts on a shiny pair of glasses—which they call 'Modernization and Efficiency'. But is the arrival of automation in traditional Indian medicine truly a development, or just a new excuse for job loss?

The Deception of Modernization: Efficiency vs. Employment

Skymap will modernize this plant and increase the use of AI and automated machinery in medicine testing, packaging, and inventory. They already do this in allopathic pharma. This will have a double-edged impact:

- Positive: Manufacturing will become fast, human error will reduce, and production capacity will increase.

- Negative (The Social Angle) / "Corporate Cherry-Picking": In Ayurveda and Unani, a lot of work is done manually in the traditional way (cleaning herbs, grinding them). When machines and AI take over these places, the generation of new employment (jobs) will stop.

- Profit Trimming: Instead of investing money in R&D, private companies engage in "Profit Trimming"—AI will be deployed to speed up packaging and logistics, but cost-cutting will begin in the human expertise that checks the purity of traditional herbs. The biggest weapon of private companies is "Optimization" (meaning extracting maximum work at minimum cost).

This is not the first time the country has lost a massive government asset in the name of 'efficiency' and privatization. If we look at the examples of past government pharma companies, their story stands as a terrifying warning of an upcoming major danger.

The Shocking Past Precedent: Why Wasn't Anything Learned from IDPL and RDPL?

If we look back at history, whenever the government weakened or sold pharma PSUs, the country suffered huge losses.

- IDPL (Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited), which was once Asia's largest government company manufacturing allopathic medicine, was gradually shut down by stopping its funding. Along with it, RDPL was also shut down.

- What Was the Loss?: As soon as these government companies vanished from the market, China took control of India's pure allopathic manufacturing. Today, even our private pharma companies are dependent on China for more than 70% of their raw materials (APIs).

Now, the government is making the exact same mistake in the Ayurvedic and Unani (AYUSH) sector. When the sole profit-making traditional medicine body (IMPCL) goes into private hands, tomorrow market monopolies will gain complete control here as well, and the common man will be left with no cheap or reliable government alternative.

Conclusion

In the name of corporate efficiency and an ₹80,000 crore asset monetization target, this deal of ₹121 crore might fill government files, and modern AI or automation might also arrive in the factory...

But what will happen to those hundreds of families in that hilly region of Uttarakhand (Mohan, Almora) who have been dependent on this 35.81-acre factory for the last 45 years? And what will happen to those lakhs of poor patients whose affordable medicines are now going to be taxed with corporate profit?

Is the promotion of traditional medicine limited only to marketing on the global stage, or is there an actual intent at the grassroots level to save its valuable land and the health of the common public?

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