The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Anna varsity to offer B.Tech in pharmaceutical, food technology

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 14, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Anna varsity to offer B.Tech in pharmaceutical, food technology

By K. Ramachandran

CHENNAI, APRIL 13. Two major sectors set to achieve high growth in the coming years — pharmaceutical technology and food technology — are the focal areas of new programmes to be started in 2004-05 by Anna University.

These B.Tech programmes, it is hoped, will meet a felt need for creation of trained manpower for handling the new techniques and technologies in the pharma and food/food processing sectors, both of which can drive the economy of the country.

The courses are to be offered by the university's Centre for Biotechnology (CBT).

Based on the success of its B.Tech Industrial Biotechnology offered since 1992, the CBT in October 2003 organised a brain-storming session with lead players from both the sectors, discussing the curriculum for training manpower.

"The curricula will help the students understand both the science and engineering aspects needed in the two technologies," says Arun Balakrishnan, Director, CBT.

The candidates will be selected through the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examinations and single-window admissions of the university. Students who have studied mathematics, physics and chemistry in the higher secondary course are eligible to apply.

The four-year B.Tech pharmaceutical technology includes project work to be undertaken under the guidance of recognised faculty or in an industry.

From the third semester, specialised subjects will be introduced such as physical chemistry, cell biology, organic chemistry, microbiology, pharmaceutics, molecular biology, medicinal chemistry, biochemical engineering, pharmaceutical analysis, chemical reaction engineering, pharmacognogy and pharmacokinetics.

In the final year, students will get exposure to total quality management, drug design, regulatory issues in the pharma industry, plant equipment design, instrumentation control and analysis.

In B.Tech food technology also there will be specialised subjects in both engineering and science streams — physical/organic and food chemistry, cell biology, microbiology, nutrition, instrumentation, molecular biology, food microbiology, biochemical engineering, food processing and preservation integration and cold chain, food fermentation, food product development, food safety, quality and ethics, regulatory issues in food industry, process plant equipment and design in food industry.

According to a Confederation of Indian Industry-McKinsey report, released two months ago, mass-market basic foods will continue to be the largest area, requiring companies to ensure distinctive efficiency across their business system to reduce inefficiencies and compete with the low-cost unorganised sector.

According to the report, the level of value-addition in food has increased and so the Indian food industry is shifting towards greater processing and value addition.

The absolute revenue increase in food manufacturing was Rs 90,000 crores (between 1993 and 2000).

Atta, fruit juices, ready-to-eat foods, soft drinks, pickles and namkeens grew at over 10 per cent annually. The share of products such as pickles, namkeens and papad is over 20 per cent.

The CII-Mckinsey report states `ready-to-eat' food items are growing at 200 per cent annually with an estimated growth in the market size of Rs.200 crores by 2005.

With the estimated growth in mass consumption, companies in the food sector require more product innovation, a low-cost business system and efficient supply chain management, says Dr. Balakrishnan.

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