New Delhi, Sept. 24 -- The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) wants India's drug regulator to build a centralized digital registry for medicines to curb counterfeit drugs.

The rights panel has proposed a centrally regulated authentication system using dynamic, uniquely serialized QR codes, along with a national database to track medicines through the supply chain. It has also called for stronger enforcement, including faster judicial handling of counterfeit-drug cases and mandatory accreditation of all state and central drug-testing laboratories by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).

The recommendations come after India recorded 283 spurious and adulterated drug samples in financial yea...