Noted scientist Dr. K Muniyappa has regretted that though the number of colleges offering biotechnology degrees in the country has grown by leaps and bounds during the last some years, the quality of the education imparted in these colleges is a subject for deep concern.

"The Indian biotechnology sector is facing an acute shortage of trained manpower and there is a lack of initiative for development of competent human resources," he said.

There is an urgent need for the Union government to earmark a portion of the budget towards quality training of manpower in biotechnology. The observation by the research institutes and the industry is that the present knowledge among biotech graduates makes them unemployable. In the post-graduate sector, many of the candidates are even unfit for on-the-job training.

"With the growing popularity of biotechnology among the students, there has been a spurt in the number of colleges offering biotechnology degrees, but the quality of training offered is a question," Dr Muniyappa, professor and chairman, department of biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science told Pharmabiz.

"Graduate students contribute the most, if not all to our research output in many disciplines. In India, the emphasis is on training rather than research productivity. This has led pharma-biotech sector to insist for candidates who have either studied or worked abroad only because of the quality of personnel in India are just not employable," Dr Muniyappa, who is also the founding coordinator, National DBT Post-doctoral Programme in Biotechnology and Lifesciences, added.

In the west, the biotechnology curriculum is structured and the training strengthens the subject fundamentals, unlike India where it is much of 'hotchpotch', with no focus. Candidates cannot be trained to become a 'jack of all trades'. Nurturing post-doctoral researchers requires a different kind of support like career guidance and intellectual environment, pointed out Dr. Muniyappa.

Another crucial issue is the lack of funds for training. Only Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) allocate a small percentage of the total budget to the training programmes. In the west, there is a concept of philanthropists pitching in grants to aid students, but in India, there is a lone Lady Tata Memorial Trust working on similar lines to award doctoral or post-doctoral fellowships to pursue research, Dr Muniyappa regretted.

The funding agencies should be aware that the Human Resources Development programmes do not generally produce short term results and require long term investments. A centralized department should administer the post-doctoral programmes in science similar to the NRSA in the US, JSPS in Japan, British Academy fellowships, NRC and NHMRC in Australia, he stated.

In 2001, a DBT sponsored three-year programme known as the 'National DBT Postdoctoral Programme in Biotechnology and Lifesciences' was outsourced to IISc to train post-doctoral fellowships. The five year-old programme receives around 500 applications annually from PhD degrees holders in science, engineering and medicine. It also attracts a pool of recently graduated PhDs from IITs, IISc, CSIR, DBT institutes and medical colleges.

Many women scientists and doctorates from foreign universities also apply. About 90 fellowships were awarded, 324 post-doctoral students were trained, 17 of them were medical doctors. As of July 2006, 38 per cent secured job in the academia, government labs and biotech-pharma industry. Around 30 per cent went abroad to continue research careers.

"The government should consider structured training programmes for post-doctoral researchers in all branches of science and technology. There should be change in attitudes towards post-doctoral researchers trained in India accompanied by changes in the appointment practices and polices of academic administrators and funding agencies," said Dr. Muniyappa who is one of the key speakers for 'Bio Asia 2007' at Hyderabad on 'Capacity Building in Higher Education in Biotechnology'.