Union minister for health and family welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad will inaugurate the country’s leading biotech exposition Bangalore India Bio 2012 on February 6. The 3-day event, which will be held from February 6 to 8, at the Hotel Lalith Ashok in Bengaluru, is the flagship event of the Karnataka government. This year’s focus is on transformation technology and upcoming areas of biotechnology.

Karnataka chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda will  preside over the function. Dr V S Acharya, Minister for Higher Education, Planning & Statistics, Muzrai, Information Technology and Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka, Ron Somers – president, United States India Business Council (USIBC), USA and Dr M K Bhan, secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India will be the guests of honour.

With the theme of this year’s event as “India The Emerging Bioeconomy”, the event will highlight the solution for many of the health, food and fuel problems. Integration of biotechnology solutions in these sectors will result in biotechnology economic growth and thus biotechnology will be responsible for a significant share of the country's GDP, stated the organizers.

For the first time, United States India Business Council (USIBC) is partnering the event. There is also a 15-member delegation led by its president, Ron Somers. There will also be business delegations from Georgia and Pennsylvania states. In addition, there will be delegations from UKTI and Germany. Overall representatives from more than 20 countries will be participating in Bangalore India Bio 2012.

Key features of the event include  Multi-Track Conference, International Trade Show, India's Biotech Vision 2015 Leadership Series, BioPartnering India, Podium Presentations, Poster Session, CEO Conclave, Bio Excellence Awards and BioQuiz.

The conferences will address biotechnology’s role in the sectors of healthcare, food security, and alternative fuels. Sessions on frontier and future areas of stem cells and regenerative medicines, companion diagnostics, next generation genomics, transformational technologies like high performance computing, synthetic biology and mobile healthcare will be highlighted. Over 600 delegates and 80 exhibitors from various biotech verticals across India will participate in the event.

The vision 2015 leadership series will be addressed by Ron Somers, Dr M K Bhan and Terri Bresenham, president and CEO, GE Healthcare India.

The BioPartnering India programme will facilitate business meetings with prospective partners and podium presentations.
 
The CEO conclave has Dr Vijay Chandru - president ABLE, chairman and CEO Strand Life Sciences, Sridhar Mosur, CEO and president, Drug Discovery & Development Solutions, Jubilant Drug Discovery, Dr Rashmi H Barbhaiya CEO and managing director, Advinus Therapeutics Ltd, Dr Suri Venkatachalam, CEO and managing director, Connexios Life Sciences, K V Subramaniam, president and CEO, Reliance Life Sciences, Jignesh Bhate, CEO, Molecular Connections Private Limited and D A Prasanna, CMD, Ecron Acunova deliberate on whether India is on the right path to become a bio-economy. The discussions will focus on strategies and implementation plans to achieve a vibrant bio-economy for India.

The key event sponsors are Biocon, USIBC, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, Strand Life Sciences, Semler Research centre, Ecron Acunova and Avesthagen.

Officials from the Department of Information Technology, Bio-Technology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka, Vision Group on Biotechnology, MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications and ABLE briefed the media today on the run-up to the event.