The second day of the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival saw a mix of thoughts, ideas, viewpoints — from climate crisis to lack of drug regulations, to the corporate world’s dilemmas and challenges, to theatre and music, among other things — being presented on stage on Saturday.
Day Two of the festival saw former minister of health from Canada and author, Ujjal Dosanjh, talk about the current state of affairs between India and Canada, Khalistan, freedom of speech, and the need to be objective. “This is my second literature festival as an author and it is great to be here,” he said.
He added that India and Canada are two important countries and he was concerned about the relationship between them. “Canada hasn’t taken any steps that will hamper the future of students and it won’t. The Canadian prime minister may have mishandled the situation, but we should not escalate the issue. The Indian government has reacted aggressively by asking 41 diplomats to leave. No two democracies have fought a war and by not giving visas to people to visit the country,” said Dosanjh.
Pharmacy, Heal Thyself, was a session that had authors Dinesh Thakur and Prashant Reddy speak on their book, ‘The Truth Pill: The Myth of Drug Regulation in India.’ The book analyses e actions of institutions responsible for the safety and efficacy of Indian drug supply in the context of the evolution of the drugs act 1940 from pre-Independent India to present day.
They both spoke about the urgent need to ensure standard quality of medicines given to people in government schemes, the efficacy of these medicines, fill the gaps in life-saving medicines and allow citizens to be a part of drug regulatory process.
