The state government introduced Biotechnology Policy for Goa by October 2006, with a mission to accelerate and integrate the existing achievements in research and industry. The state that has stayed within the top three positions with respect to key indicator's of economic growth and quality of life such as education, health, infrastructure and literacy in recent years keeps its ambitions high to grow in the sector in collaboration with the central government and public-private partnership.
In order to carry the state to the pre-eminent position in biotechnology development, the policy proclaims its key objectives to prioritize the thrust areas for basic and applied research and technology development, to promote innovations in R&D by providing financial and infrastructural support and by encouraging public-private partnership for R&D by allowing a synergistic exchange of expertise and resources and to provide quality infrastructure and an enabling environment for sustained growth and international competitiveness by effective networking among industries, universities and premier research institutions with the State, other parts of the country as well as in other countries.
The policy is designed to provide an institutional framework comprising the government, academia, subject specialists, venture capitalists, industry and industry associations and to evolve a well-defined structural and legal framework to achieve the above objectives. The government has announced its plans to set up a venture capital fund to promote innovations of commercial importance in academic industry, according to the policy statements.
The policy, which covers various sectors under biotechnology healthcare, agriculture, industry, services, environment management and employment generation, has set its priority area in healthcare as supporting basic and applied research in molecular and cellular biology, pharmacogenomics, proteomics, nano technology, system biology, stem cell biology, RNA interference, host response molecular farming and new platform technologies etc. Other priority areas are development of products such as vaccines, therapeutic antibodies, herbal medicines, nucleic acids, recombinant therapeutics, drug and vaccine delivery systems and new anti microbial agents, development of immunodiagnostics, molecular diagnostic and reagents required for the diagnostic kits and contract research and manufacturing.
To promote R&D in the field, the state government will offer specific grants for setting up or upgrading R&D facilities in universities, research institutions and industrial research labs, adequate support for the pursuit of excellence in agri-biotech, marine biotech and healthcare will be provided to the existing universities and institutions which are already active in research. The government will encourage universities and institutions for active networking with national and international institutes of repute and will promote setting up of autonomous institutes with private participation for achieving excellence in specialized areas.
Under the new policy, the government also have plans to set up more number of biotech parks in the state. According to this, the government may take an equity stake in such projects jointly promoted with private partners by providing funds directly or in lieu of land allotted for the projects. The policy also moots a Goa University Biosciences Centre (GUBC) jointly by the post-graduate departments dealing in life sciences including marine biotechnology, microbiology, botany, zoology and marine sciences. The Government is also considering integrating the facilities proposed in GBSU with the biotechnology park to maximize the benefits by pooling the strengths of the faculties and promoting industry academia interaction.
The government has plans to extend financial support to industry and research institutes for protection of IPR for filing and maintaining patents. The government will consider setting up a patent information centre with access to relevant databases and the centre would be converted to a state level IPR center in due course.
The proposals are also to make all new biotech units in the state eligible for capital investment subsidy at the rate of 15 percent subject to maximum limit of Rs.15 lakhs. All new biotech SSIs will be eligible for an interest subsidy of 30 percent of the interest paid on term loans or working capital loans to nationalized banks or approved financial institutions, subject to a limit of 1.5 percent of the turnover or Rs. 5 lakhs, whichever is lower.
The government, as an incentive, will allocate employment incentive to unit at Rs 15,000 per employee per annum and a maximum amount of Rs 75 lakhs per year in one unit, for a period of two years starting from the date of operation. The biotech units will be exempted from entry tax on all capital goods and raw materials for the first five years of project implementation and the biotech companies shall be exempt from the purview of Statutory power cuts.
The government will provide grants and other benefits to units that wish to undertake activities relating to research in cutting edge technologies particularly in the areas of vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics, transgenic plants and bioremediation. A one-time reimbursement of certification charges for ISO 9000 etc. upto Rs 5 lakhs will be provided to biotechnology units. To promote innovative biotech ventures in the State, Government of Goa, will to set up a Biotechnology Venture Fund to provide financial support to such projects, particularly at the early and start up stages.
The government will also constitute a high-powered coordination committee to ensure expeditious clearance of biotechnology projects with the chief minister as the chairman of the committee.
Another State Level Implementation Committee (SLIC), under the Chairmanship of industries minister will be formed to foster public-private partnership, the state government to set up a special Biotechnology Development Fund with an initial corpus of Rs. 50 crores, with private collaboration and with the objective of funding various ventures.
According to the policy, the high powered coordination committee should meet at such times and places and shall adopt such procedures to transact its business as may be prescribed, examine the proposals brought before it, for setting up biotech units and should communicate decisions to the entrepreneurs and the departments or the authorities concerned within the prescribed time limit of 30 days.
The SLIC, on the other hand, will promote research in the emerging and nascent technologies by inviting proposals from different institutions and industries and providing financial assistance. The SLIC will help the state in creating greater public awareness issues arising, which impinge on aspects of culture, morality, ethics, economics etc. The committee will also setup a Core Technical Group for evaluation of the projects to be set up in the biotech parks and for disbursement of incentives.
As the part of supporting the biotech industry and research, the government has also plans to allow various incentives to the private, public players in the sector. The government shall declare biotechnology parks as Special Economic Zones, will assist incubation of technology based start-ups for innovate biotech products and services, will encourage and assist Goa University and other educational organizations to create an online alumni database as well as a specialist citizen database to enable the biotechnology units in the State to locate skilled manpower.