The international event on biotechnology, BioAsia 2004, was inaugurated at Hyderabad by Surjit Singh Barnala, governor of Andhra Pradesh, on Thursday. Addressing the gathering, the governor said that India is emerging as a major player in Asia, in the field of biotechnology and Hyderabad in particular is fast developing into a big cluster and biotech hub of the country.

The event has been organized by the government of AP to showcase the strength of Asian countries in biotechnology and allied subjects. This is the first such international event on biotechnology of this magnitude in India.

World-class infrastructure has been developed in Hyderabad and government initiatives are done at Genome Valley located in and around Hyderabad.

Biotechnology has immense potential for use in agriculture, forestry, horticulture, medicine, chemical industry, food industry, pollution control and environment. The modern world has laid its hopes on this technology for sustaining all-round progress.

Applications of biotechnology in the pharma industry include the development of better and less expensive drugs, hormone production, immunological kits, vaccines for cancer etc.