Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) has put forth a proposal to set up a Rs.200 crore venture fund for biotechnology start ups to the Parliamentary pre-budget committee as the disbursals from Karnataka's biotech fund is getting indefinitely delayed.

ABLE is considered to be the collective face of the Indian Biotech Industry. The main aim of the venture fund is to encourage the biotech entrepreneurs.

"If state governments are unable to provide the funds for biotechnology ventures, then it must be the central government's responsibility to make it an important sector. Therefore, we must ensure that the approval of this national venture fund of Rs. 200 crore is cleared ", Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson Karnataka Vision Group on Biotechnology, told pharmabiz.com

Another unexpected postponement is the construction of the Biotech Park. After the announcement of a Biotech Fund and Biotech Park, made in mid-April during the Bangalore Bio 2003, the State government is delaying implementation of both the plans.
The corpus fund did not come through because of the lack of clearance from the finance ministry as the state government coffers are reportedly empty.

As regards the Biotech Park, although the Singapore-based architects Jurong (JTC) which have a full-fledged office in Bangalore are selected for design and construction, the project has failed to take off. There have been a few hiccups in the department of the information technology and biotechnology with the sudden exist of its secretary Vivek Kulkarni. The State's Vision-Group on Biotechnology should start reinitiating the procedures with the new IT and BT secretary Shiva Kumar.

The government sources said that the setback is on account of the procedural hurdles and that decisions are expected to be taken soon.

According to Shaw, "There have been a lot of glitches in our announcements with regard to the Biotech Park. There has been a setback in schedules by six months. However, we are confident of commissioning it by end of 2005."

Despite these hurdles, the biotech sector has not been dependent on the government to start its initiatives like the Park or the Fund. "If the government is going to take their own time for the Park, the heads of companies will make their own arrangements", she said.

"The biotech sector in the State has not suffered because of the Biotech Park. We see companies have made their own arrangements. Either they have rented places or bought up office space to start operations. The biotech sector has witnessed growth, despite government support. There has been an increase of 10 companies in the state, which amounts to a total of around 100 Biotechnology companies in Karnataka", informed Shaw.

While the Park and the Fund are not the only problems, yet another hassle that recently came up is the defection by the Event Managers DraftWorldwide who were the organisers of the Bangalore Bio 2002 and 2003. They have been hired by the Andhra Pradesh government to organise the BioAsia 2004, a global bio business forum being held on similar lines of the Bangalore Bio event which is also slated to be the biggest event of its kind in Asia, scheduled for inauguration during February-end 2004. The organisers have not only offered the event managers a higher remuneration but have managed to have access to all the database of the Bangalore Bio, stated sources.

However, the Karnataka Vision Group on Biotechnology is confident to have the Bangalore Bio 2004 on schedule with a novel addition of bio-partnering, stated Shaw.