Caliber, a leading provider of software solutions in Quality Control, Quality Assurance, Manufacturing Automation and Data Analytics solutions for the pharmaceutical industry, in partnership with the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), hosted the “Tomorrow-Ready Pharma: Embracing AI for Digital Transformation” Leadership Summit in Mumbai.
The summit brought together 60+ CXOs, global quality heads, IT and digital leaders from top pharmaceutical organisations to discuss the future of AI in Pharma, intelligence-driven quality systems, and the readiness of people and processes to adopt next-generation technologies.
The summit opened with remarks from Dr. Rajiv Desai, Senior Technical Advisor – Quality & Regulatory, IPA, who emphasised the need for deeper collaboration between pharmaceutical manufacturers and technology partners to accelerate India’s Pharma 4.0 journey and AI adoption. Dr. Desai highlighted that the industry is now entering a phase where partnership with technology companies like Caliber is a must, as now the intelligent quality systems, harmonised data, and digital capability-building are no longer optional but essential for global competitiveness.
Following this, Sekhar Surabhi, CEO of Caliber and Chair of the ISPE Pharma 4.0 CoP (India), delivered the keynote address. Drawing from Caliber’s 25-year journey of strengthening pharmaceutical quality and enabling digital excellence, he spoke about the industry’s responsibility to lead transformation proactively rather than respond to it reactively.
Sekhar emphasised how AI adoption worldwide is redefining expectations around data integrity, audit readiness, and leadership accountability in quality functions. He also highlighted Caliber’s expanding global community, including the two customer chapters under “Caliber Commune” launched this year in New Jersey and Long Island. He highlighted that these platforms are quickly becoming collaboration hubs with the user community to exchange insights, align on challenges, and collectively move toward intelligence-driven pharma operations.
Emphasising on the need to have clean data to get intelligent quality insights, AI-enabled innovation, and modern quality culture, his keynote set a clear and confident direction on what it truly means to be “tomorrow-ready” in Pharma 4.0.
A key highlight of the day was the panel discussion “Beyond Dashboards: How AI Driven Alaytics and Quality Metrics are reshaping Pharma 4.0”, moderated by Dr. Rajiv Desai (Senior Technical Advisor – Quality & Regulatory, IPA) with distinguished panellists Shirish Ambulgekar (President & Global Quality Head, Alkem Laboratories Ltd.), Sanjay Nandavadekar (Head IT & VP, Inventia Healthcare Ltd.), Dr. Shantanu Chobhe (President – Corporate QA, Akums Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Ltd.) and Milind Gujar (Chief Quality Officer – QA & QC, RPG Life Sciences Ltd.).
The conversations throughout the panel consistently emphasized that while advanced platforms, analytics, and AI-enabled tools are becoming essential, true transformation depends on organisational readiness, workforce capability, data discipline, cultural alignment, and a modern quality mindset. Speakers highlighted that Indian pharma is entering a phase where the success of digital transformation will be determined not only by what technologies are deployed but by how effectively teams are prepared to use them.
The panelists discussed how companies are moving from dashboard-driven visibility to true decision intelligence, stressing the need for harmonised data foundations, stronger collaboration between IT and Quality, and structured capability-building programs.
The fireside conversation, “CIO Perspectives on Scaling Digital Transformation in Pharma”, featured Ketan Patel, Vice President – CIO, Indoco Remedies Ltd. in discussion with Pavan Pasupulati (Vice President – Manufacturing, Caliber). The session addressed the realities of modernising legacy systems, building cross-functional ownership, and integrating AI responsibly while maintaining regulatory confidence and audit-readiness.
Caliber also unveiled their AI powered key innovations reinforcing its commitment to intelligence-driven quality. QUARI, the company’s unified quality data platform, was presented by Dr. Kavita (Vice President – Data & Analytics, Caliber), who demonstrated how the platform brings enterprise-wide quality data, real-time insights, and audit readiness into a single harmonised layer. CalGenie, Caliber’s GenAI-enabled quality digital platform, was showcased by Pavan Pasupulati, highlighting its role in accelerating investigations, improving trend detection, and enabling proactive quality management.
Speaking at the summit, Sekhar Surabhi, CEO, Caliber, said, “As we celebrate 25 years, the industry is entering an important phase. Technology can strengthen quality immensely, but transformation requires readiness, people, processes, and a culture aligned to intelligence driven quality. The discussions today reflected an industry that is serious about building that foundation.”
Representing the IPA, Dr. Rajiv Desai emphasised the importance of collaboration between pharma and technology partners, stating, “Indian manufacturers are ready to embrace Pharma 4.0, and forums like this help align expectations, share best practices, and accelerate the journey toward intelligent, modern quality systems.”