The Indian pharmaceutical industry should cross the US$60 billion mark in 2017 and reach US$100 billion by 2020, according to targets set by the Planning Commission.

The Planning Commission set the targets in the final draft of the twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012-17). According to the set targets, the Indian pharmaceutical industry will account for 5 per cent of the global pharmaceutical industry by 2017.

Currently, India's pharmaceutical industry values at around $22 billion. It is the third biggest in terms of volume and 13th biggest in terms of value worldwide.

The set targets also say that the exports of pharmaceutical-products should jump to Rs 1.3 lakh crore by the end of the twelfth Five Year Plan.

Employment in the sector will increase to an estimated of 2.4 million by the year of 2022. The final draft of the Five Year Plan says, "The sector should employ 1.5 million people by 2015, 1.9 million by 2018 and 2.4 million people by 2022."

To achieve the set targets, the panel has recommended a number of steps, such as developing a common infrastructure and capacity building of private sector to meet international manufacturing requirements and WHO-GMP standards.