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Biotechnology: Waiting in the wings

Our BureauThursday, October 23, 2003, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

India has silently been engaged for over two decades to enhance the potential of biotechnology in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, oceans and a number of other areas to add quality to the life of its billion citizens. Biotechnology may not, on the face of it, be as exotic as the frontiers of space but it is something that can negate the prophets of doom. Biotechnology may or may not be concerned with the development of the magic pill or capsule that could concentrate in it a day's nourishment. But it is definitely on the path of doubling or tripling farm production, curing what may now appear to be incurable diseases including HIV, AIDS and non-chemical pesticides with no harmful elements in them. It is involved in not just organic foods or chemicals-free seafoods, but also in making arid or flooded zones productive. It is also concerned with diminishing pain and generating medications, drugs and pharmaceuticals with the least side effects. To begin with these could be expensive but over a time frame and with tax incentives and tax breaks, they could be cost-effective. Biotechnology also seeks to develop safe preservatives to increase the shelf life of many products and push expiry dates farther away. These elements are all parts of India's BT Vision 2010, launched two years ago by the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Biotech in India is expected to grow by 40 per cent every year with a 70 per cent increase in exports. At present there are 110 biotech units in health care, 140 units in agriculture and 300 units in industrial and other biotech products sector concentrated in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Lucknow and New Delhi which are becoming India's biotech hubs. The number of biotech units is expected to double in the next three years from 550 to more than 1100. India's increasing strengths in Biotechnology are being promoted globally through various seminars and forums. The purpose of such events is to dispel misconceptions in the developed world about investment and business prospects in biotechnology in India. It demonstrates specific opportunities available in India and show that India is a good destination for research, development and production of biotech goods - as has been appreciated in the area of information technology. The biotech growth could be so substantial in the next few decades that it might overtake information technology in view of the projects in hand and strong initiatives by the government and private sector, especially in view of he large pool of skilled manpower. The Indian biotech sector employs 25,000 scientists for research and development. India's English- speaking skills are evident from three million graduates, 7 lakh post-graduates and 1,500 PhDs in bio-sciences and engineering every year. These advantages are available to the world community. It is well known that India offers the cheapest drugs to combat HIV/ AIDS and a number of countries in Africa and Asia prefer to buy Indian formulations which are affordable and not as expensive as the products of the multinational corporations. A globally competitive diagnostic kit for AIDS made in India costs Rs. 20 whereas the imported ones cost several dollars. India's contribution in a ten-nation international effort to sequence the rice genome has received world-wide acclaim. India and Switzerland have now taken up joint research on Golden Rice, a pro-vitamin A rich variety of rice. Commercial production of the genetically modified BT Cotton has been successful. Modified tobacco, tomato, potato, brinjal, mustard, cauli-flower and cabbage are undergoing field trials. The Government of India's Biotechnology Department provides financial assistance to a number of universities for advanced research in biotechnology. The Council of Industrial and Scientific Research (CSIR) is also engaged in commercializing a number of biotech products developed by its laboratories in Pune, Goa and elsewhere. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), which oversees the work of more than 80 universities and institutes is engaged in biotechnology in field trials and dissemination of its benefits to the farmers. -PIB News Feature

 
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