White-coat lure: Ranbaxy plans an additional R&D center, like this one, in Gurgaon, and is likely to hire scientists aggressively

While the Indian pharma industry sweats over intellectual property rights (IPRs), dignified cheers of 'hallelujah' can be heard in labs across the country. Money making will soon depend, more than ever, on the marvels produced by the quaint men and women in lab coats to be found squinting at test tubes. Under the new patent regime, drug discovery is to become the big chase. This means hiring scientists.

Signs Everywhere

Delhi-based Ranbaxy, which spends about 7 per cent of sales on research and development (R&D) and wants to take it to 10 per cent by 2010, is about to flag off its fourth R&D centre right next to its first one, in Gurgaon, a satellite town of Delhi in Haryana that is projected to emerge as one of Asia's most vibrant healthcare hubs.

It has been a few years coming. Indian pharma's average investment in R&D as a percentage of sales has risen from a mere 1.8 per cent in 1995 to an expected 6 per cent this year. "This is a clear indication of the confidence of private enterprise in the potential for rewards," says D.G. Shah, Secretary General of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance. Still, absolute R&D budgets are tiny in world comparison; global pharma majors spend many times more on R&D than the entire Indian pharma industry's revenues. Drug discovery is enormously resource-consuming.

The odds, therefore, are steep.

But that's no deterrent to dedicated and sharply-focussed players. "The efficiency and productivity of R&D in Indian pharma is much higher," in Shah's estimation. What's more, while it's a chancy game hitting upon that one blockbuster drug that reshapes the contours of healthcare, it's still the industry's best bet for the future. The idea is to leverage India's low-cost base of scientific manpower being generated in such awesome numbers by the education system. "This is a question of survival," says Kishore Babu, CFO at Divi's Laboratories, "earlier, people were merely copying drugs." And survival is a big motivator.

White Coat Demand

Naukri.com, a job site, lists some 2,500 jobs in pharma at the moment, a fifth of them in R&D-up from just 100 R&D jobs last year. The demand is mostly for clinical and research scientists, and salaries are rising fast. "The selling power of the R&D professional has gone up, especially in middle management," observes Swapnil Tripathi, Head of Operations at Naukri.com. Qualifications? PhDs, M.Pharma and M.Sc. degrees in pharmacology, pharmaceutics, organic, analytical and medicinal chemistry are hot. Advanced degrees in molecular biology and toxicology also have a lot of takers.

Ranbaxy currently employs 1,000 R&D professionals, and the number could rise due to aggressive hiring with the addition of its fourth centre, conceived as part of its passion for new drugs. "We will hire in the fields of medicinal and analytical chemistry, pharmacology, biotech and microbiology," discloses Udbhav Ganjoo, Director (HRD) of R&D at Ranbaxy.

Others are hiring too. Sun Pharma, which has some 390 R&D professionals in Mumbai and Baroda, plans to hire 275 more. This promises to change the cultural dynamics of these companies. Listen to T. Rajamannar, Senior VP at Sun Pharma Advanced Research Centre; while graduating from the University of Zurich, his passion was to "find just that one molecule-discover how it behaves in the environment, and works even after five years". At 42 now, his sense of microscopic focus has begun to pervade the premises.

Or ask Glenmark. With about 300 R&D professionals, this firm is busy hunting out biologists with expertise in in-vivo and in-vitro fields of specialisation. "Indian scientists are now being recognised for their ability to undertake cutting-edge research," offers Swaroop Kumar V.V.S, a 37-year-old PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from Andhra University.

For Top Flight Talent

Finding scientists who can actually make the big finds, of course, is a rarefied skill in itself. The best minds are hard to get. According to Glenn

Saldanha, CEO and MD at Glenmark, "There is a 40 per cent increase (in salaries) at senior levels for basic and process research." Any firm's ability to lure talent is under watch these days. "Where the majority of skill sets are concerned," says Saldanha, "it is the attracting rather than locating that poses a challenge." Agrees Sun Pharma's Chairman and Managing Director, Dilip Sanghvi: "At junior levels, it is difficult to retain people; at senior levels people who understand the interface between a lot of different sciences are difficult to find."

Firms, naturally, have taken to poaching one another's scientists. "But we are not scared of losing people because they cannot take away any sensitive information," says Babu of Divi's, "as we do not violate patents." It's with reverse engineering that leaks occur, he indicates, not with high-integrity endeavours.

Sangeeta Sabharwal, Executive Director at Ma Foi, has been watching pharma recruitment trends closely, and expects the action to pick up strongly. The white coats are coming. It's for them now to shake things up.

SPOTLIGHT
Economic Forecasters

ICRA's Gogna: Applied reading

Forecasting the economy is not about gazing into some obscure crystal ball. It involves some good number crunching. But reputations are acquired much like the gypsies-through the accuracy experienced by clients. And clients could range from rating agencies and investment houses to corporates and government setups. "To get into the field, one has to be from an economics, accountancy or commerce background. Doing specialised courses like business economics, BBS, courses certified by ICFAI or being a CA clearly helps," says Amul Gogna, Executive Director of rating agency ICRA. Education helps. But this is not a 'science' science, so success involves developing assorted fuzzy sensitivities to go with bookish knowledge. If you get your eyes in, however, the market will pay enormous sums for your economic projections.

-Alia Ramaswamy

COUNSELLING
Help, Tarun!

I am a 25-year-old mechanical engineer, working as a shift engineer in a steel company for three years. Before this I worked as a graduate apprentice trainee in a steel company, which is ranked #1 in India. As per my knowledge, the work that I am doing (at the roll grinding shop and at the hot rolling mill) has very low chance of growth in any other industry. I am looking for a change of job and a change of position, but I have not been getting a positive response to any of my job applications. I am not financially secure enough to do a course outside my job. Please help.

At times, it makes better sense to stick to where you are. That's because it is difficult to change jobs in a field like yours, especially considering the fact that the experience you have is limited and very specialised. On the other hand, if you are ready to compromise on seniority, any field where a mechanical engineering degree is required could be an option for you. Depending on whether you want to stick to the metallurgical field or not, several industries like light and heavy engineering, automobiles, auto parts, and so on are open to you.

I am 22 years old and will be completing my BE (computer science and engineering) in June 2005. I have already got a job in a good IT company, which will pay me Rs 2.4 lakh per annum. However, I am undecided on whether I should take up the offer. That's because I appeared for CAT and without any preparation did well enough to get admission to a II-tier business school. My dilemma is whether I should appear for my CAT again while working, or let the job go and join a business school right away to do my MBA. Please advise.

You are in an enviable situation. Whatever you do will be good for you. If you work for a year and then do an MBA, the IT experience is going to look good on your resume. But your first year of employment will most likely be strenuous, leaving you with little time to study. On the other hand, if you think your chances of getting a higher grade and admission into a top tier institute are less than 50 per cent, go for the MBA now. But if you feel very confident that a retry will fetch you more marks, it may not be a bad idea to reappear for cat. Ultimately, it's about what you think you can achieve.

I am a 25-year-old promotions manager for a record company in Bangalore. I earn a paltry salary and have trouble staying afloat in a city where the living costs have risen sharply. I am negotiating a job with a major record label in Mumbai and if that doesn't work out, I want to seek work in some other metro since the living cost in Bangalore is too high for my means. I am stuck in a catch-22 situation-while I don't really make enough to afford the move to yet another costly city, I think such a move would greatly improve things for me professionally. What should I do?

If you feel Bangalore is expensive, you haven't seen Mumbai yet. Mumbai may offer you greater chances if you get the opportunity you have mentioned, but it will certainly be much more expensive in terms of living cost. However, that's not to say that it will not be a good change to make. It will, but make sure that you do not leave Bangalore without a job in hand. So be a little patient, try hard for a change of job and when a good one comes your way, make the shift. To speed up the process, you could visit Bombay, live with a friend, meet people and look for a job.

I am a 25-year-old NIFD graduate currently working as an apparel designer for a buying house. My field of work is quite interesting but the problem is my immediate boss, who I feel is trying to rehash my designs and pass them off as his own in front of our chief designer. I have no other way to reach the chief designer, as all our sketches have to be approved by our respective department heads first. This is intellectual property theft, and I feel thoroughly cheated. Please advise me on how to get out of this sticky situation.

The first question that you need to ask is whether your boss does the same to other subordinates. There is always strength in numbers. If you know of others with a similar problem, you could easily go together to the chief designer or some other person in authority and talk about it. Also, ask yourself whether it is just a feeling that you have. Maybe your boss is enhancing instead of rehashing your design. Are you learning on this job, and from your boss, or not? Answering these questions will help you make up your mind on whether to stay on or look for another job.

Answers to your career concerns are contributed by Tarun Sheth (Senior Consultant) and Shilpa Sheth (Managing Partner, US practice) of HR firm, Shilputsi Consultants. Write to Help,Tarun! c/o Business Today, Videocon Tower, Fifth Floor, E-1, Jhandewalan Extn., New Delhi-110055..

The Mirror Effect
Why media salaries could outpace the rest.

Translation: More money means more money

Make that the magnified mirror effect. Advertising spending (media revenue, that is) tends to mirror the economic growth curve, but in a magnified way. So, if the economy slows, spending tanks; if it accelerates, spending goes into a frenzy-with a lag, sometimes, especially in transition economies such as India's.

Upfront admission: keyboard punchers who put this sort of thing into print have a self-serving interest in believing it. But it's reasonable to expect that in a media industry that's relatively free of market-distorting monopolistic muscle, media salaries could start outpacing those in many other boom sectors (such as it, ITEs and financial services). Moreover, "There is much happening in the media and entertainment sector," says Arun Das Mahapatra, Managing Partner, Heidrick & Struggles India. "The sector looks robust," concurs Rekha Koshy, Practice Head (Entertainment Media & Communication), Accord India. And unlike in the not-so-distant past, it's not about a 'new economy' of super-digitised fantasy. It's about the credible engagement of minds.

-Supriya Shrinate

Flippers For Thought
Nirula's needs career paths to take on McDonald's.

Watch it: This man at the counter could go places

Nirula's, Delhi's 1934-founded fast-food chain, has seen McDonald's enter India, and is now confident that it won't just survive, but thrive-if it fans out across the landmass by adopting the global chain's replication strategy (of menu optimisation, systems, service, hygiene and quality standardisation). But perhaps the big edge that McDonald's has is its promise to rookie burger-flippers that they could make worldwide CEO some day, if they learn to manoeuvre their career paths instead of just being cogs in the machine.

Nirula's isn't far behind on employee motivation, claims Group Captain D.V. Arora vsm, gm (hr & Administration), Nirula's. "Our recipe for success lies in being fair and firm, and law-abiding employers," he says, adding that tests and interviews of rookies are conducted every quarter to promote at "least two-three people to the managerial cadre". At last count, some 15 managers had risen from the 'team member level' (people who serve you). The company's all-India expansion plan, however, will require this to happen in much larger numbers. Will some big corporate honcho, 25 years on, be recounting his young days as a Nirula's burger flipper?

-Payal Sethi