Generic medicine and

The generics are medicines on which the patents have expired. They are sold either as branded products or as unbranded products under their generic names. These drugs are equivalent to a brand-name product in dosage, strength, route of administration, quality, performance, and intended use.
Branded medicines are more expensive. The generic drug does not have to undergo a complete clinical trial to be proved equivalent, the bio equivalence test is much cheaper than clinical trials making generic drugs cheaper.     Cost difference between branded and generic drug is so much that even well to do people cannot afford a branded drug. In India, a large population falls below poverty line and also affected with health related issues, hence generic drugs help poor in accessing the essentials drugs.

                                                                                                       
India has the highest burden of TB, diabetes cases in the world and the antibiotics required for the treatment is very costly if brand named drugs will be taken, it will be pushing people into poverty.
Medicines account for 70-75% of a household’s out of pocket expenditure on health hence generic drug save a lot of expense on health not only of patients but also of governments, which run the public health care system.
While generic medicines are good quality low-cost drugs with equal efficacy as that of branded drugs, in the absence of proper knowledge consumers often tend to go by what doctors and chemists decide for them.
Due to the blind usage of antibiotics, people tend to develop antibiotic resistance making first line of drugs ineffective so generic drugs can be the next alternative.
Economic and employment perspective: Indian pharma companies are the largest providers of generic medicine in the world. The generic drugs industry generates impressive economic dynamism, employment, foreign exchange, FDI, medical tourism, etc.

Steps taken by government:
Jan Aushadhi Stores: Making Generic drugs available at Jan Aushadhi stores across country and making it available in all public health centres.
Prescribe drugs with generic names: MCI issued guidelines for doctors to prescribe only Generic names of drugs and failure to do so will lead to cancellation of license to practice.
Novartis v. Union of India & Others in the case so many issues emergence like intellectual property rights,WTO issues, evergreen of patent on medicine with simple changes,registration and rejection of medicine etc    

The directive issues have not been implemented at ground level. Being a developing country with huge population under poverty line and health issues, access to generic drugs to needy section of the society is most important need. Government should do all those efforts to get easy access to the generic drugs.