Human resource starved biotech industry can expect some cheers as the 100 candidates from the 12 Finishing Schools in Karnataka will now move on for internship to the industry by mid- February. The sector has also been complaining about the lack of employable graduates. Now the access to 100 candidates will be an answer to its problems.

Karnataka’s department of information technology, biotechnology and science and technology which pioneered the concept of Finishing Schools in the country has now announced the graduation of 100 candidates.

“The candidates from our 12 Finishing Schools will complete their first leg of theory and will now move on officially for industry exposure,” stated Karnataka IT, BT and S&T principal secretary, MN Vidyashankar at a press conference on the upcoming Bangalore India Bio 2012 to be held at the Lalith Ashok in Bengaluru from February 6-8.

“This is a significant effort as the qualifying candidates from the 12 Finishing Schools will now prove their mettle going by the training imparted at the centres across the state,” he added.

At the Bangalore India Bio 2011, the state government had sanctioned Rs.1 crore each to set up 12 Finishing Schools. These included Bangalore’s PESIT, Dayananda Sagar College, Maharani Ammani College for Women, Oxford College, Mysore JSS, Mangalore’s Aloysius College, Tumkur’s Siddaganga institute, Sirsi’s MM Arts and Science College, etc.

The state is now home to 60 per cent of the biotech units which is 187 companies and requires the candidates with the required industry skills. Presently, biotechnology through its industries in bio-pharma, bio agri, clean-green technologies and bio energy among others directly employs 100,000 candidates and 10 times of this number are serving the allied biotech sector.

Now the state government has been able to implement much of the announcements it made at the Bangalore India Bio 2011. Apart from the commissioning and completion of courses of its 12 Finishing Schools, it has been on course with the construction of the Alexandria Knowledge Park, the erstwhile Bangalore Helix which will be ready in June 2013.

The last year event had the state government announce a Rs.67. 5 crore fund assistance for the development of the biotechnology sector. Out of this amount, Rs.45 crore was allocated to promote projects in the area of high technology which cover stem cells and regenerative and genetics. “We have now commissioned Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (InStem) within the campus of the National Centre for Biological Sciences here. The remaining Rs.22.5 crore is also being offered to companies to support technology transfers and commercialize research projects, he said.