Sports Minister Unveils App to Identify Prohibited Substance in Medicines

A national conference was held on April 13, 2023, to raise awareness about the risks of consuming nutritional supplements. During its inaugural session, the Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Anurag Singh Thakur, unveiled a web and mobile application called “Know Your Medicine”.

The app is developed by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). It lets the user know if any substance in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited list is found in the medicines. Further, it is accessible in English and Hindi and allows users to search by medicine and ingredient options. Such an initiative will help sportspersons from unknowingly consuming nutritional supplements containing prohibited substances.

The NADA organized the event and the inaugural session was also attended by the Secretary (Sports) of the Sports Ministry, the CEO of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the Director General of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), etc.

In his speech, Thakur emphasized that the athletes would eventually have to be careful in adding any supplement to their diet and would be held liable for violating anti-doping rules. He also referred to the MoU recently entered by the Sports Ministry, the FSSAI and the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Hyderabad, which facilitates the testing capacity of nutritional supplements in India (click here to read more about the MoU).