The state government of Karnataka is proposing to float a biotech fund on similar lines of the State-promoted KITVEN (Karnataka IT ventures) fund, which is aimed at providing capital assistance for entrepreneurs in the form of seed capital to take up biotech ventures in the State.

Speaking at the Bangalore Bio 2002, on the concluding day of the three-day biotech seminar in Bangalore, Vivek Kulkarni, Secretary, department of IT and Biotechnology, Karnataka said that the Karnataka State Financial Corporation (KSFC), Karnataka State Industrial Investment and Development Corporation (KSIIDC) and the Small Scale Industries Development Board of India (SIDBI), who were the promoters of KITVEN would jointly contribute to the Rs 5 crore BT Fund.

According to B K Chandrashekar, minister for information technology and biotechnology, Karnataka, the modalities of the size and volume of the funding will be discussed shortly. "The government is seriously contemplating the dispersal of biotech industries in other parts of the State particularly north Karnataka and identify projects which are less capital intensive in order to encourage more indigenous investments. This would increase the employment opportunities in the district areas," he added.

"Our stress will be on biotech services as drug discovery and advanced research needed huge capital costs," pointed out Kulkarni. The State has generated revenues to the tune of Rs. 50 crore in the last ten years. In just one year there were 10 new companies, which set up base here. In the next one year it was expected to see a Rs. 300 crore investment and the Scandinavian drug major AstraZeneca has confirmed an investment of Rs. 150 crore, he confirmed.

With a view to spread the bio-clusters outside Bangalore to the twin cities Hubli-Dharwad, the locations have been identified for the promotion of agri-biotech ventures.

This second annual event of the Bangalore Bio 2002 event, which has been viewed as a bigger, and a mature fair according to participants had 72 stalls, with 15,000 business and 25,000 general visitors. The international conference attracted 67 speakers from 13 countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, United Kingdom, United States, Korea, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Canada and Ireland.

The first round of the 12 B2B presentations evinced tremendous response and there were also 700 participants of the biotech quiz held on the occasion. The SWOT (strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats) analysis by the heads of biotech companies and venture capitals it was gathered that VC's were disappointed on the lack of a concrete long term investment initiative in the biotech sector. The analysis further indicated that Karnataka with its less capital and low marketing skills should focus on R&D and location of units in clusters where industry and academia could co-exist.

The government will also announce the opening of the 50 acre Biotech Park here in Bangalore where 35 acres have been allotted for the biotech units. "The government will not subsidise the cost of the plots instead will ensure to recover the money through the biotech units located there," informed the State IT &BT minister.