The meeting to be held by the department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) will discuss bringing surgical gloves and single-use medical examination gloves under the quality control order (QCO) to ensure better standards for these products whether imported or manufactured in the country, sources said.
At present, these gloves are not regulated properly, resulting in import of substandard gloves rejected in other countries. Senior officials from the textiles department, the country’s drug regulator, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), and industry associations will attend the meeting. They will discuss issues of importers procuring substandard gloves at prices lower than the manufacturing cost of medical/surgical gloves and dumping of cheap rubber gloves from countries like Malaysia and Vietnam, sources cited above said.
The Indian glove market witnessed growth spurts during the Covid-19 pandemic with the country seeing emergence of domestic glove makers.
A meeting was earlier held by the department of consumer affairs (DoCA) to discuss the Indian Rubber Gloves Manufacturers Association’s demand to implement quality control order for disposable of surgical rubber gloves and single-use medical examination gloves, gloves made from rubber latex or rubber solution.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the DoP has been contemplating the issuance of QCO in consultation with BIS and other stakeholders and have already invited comments from stakeholders. ET has seen the minutes. Domestic glovemakers had earlier urged the government to bring stringent measures to step up quality levels to restrict import and dumping of poor-quality bulk packed gloves, which are being repacked for medical usage in India.
