The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : National biotech policy in six months

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 12, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

National biotech policy in six months

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, JULY 11. A "Cabinet endorsed" National Biotechnology Policy will be ready in six months, M.K. Bhan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, said here on Sunday.

The new policy would replace the existing "vision statement" on biotechnology, and create a framework for a public-private partnership driven growth of biotechnology in the country, Dr. Bhan told presspersons here after the inaugural session on a conference on "Biotechnology for a billion people."

The three-day international conference comprises a series of talks, being held concurrently with the State's fourth annual biotechnology trade show, Bangalore Bio 2004. Two commissions, one to help form the biotechnology policy and the other to "advise us on models of public-private partnership" will be in place next month, he said.

In addition to research, these commissions would look at trade and investment too. In this connection, the Centre was studying IPR issues and the "doubt is not whether we will be TRIPS compliant (trade related intellectual property rights under the World Trade Organisation agreement) but whether we will have a machinery in place to enforce the compliance," he said. In his keynote address at the inauguration of the conference, Dr. Bhan said: "A major effort is needed to communicate biotech to India's society, for it was important that the people understood the need to "accommodate biotechnology (in the national agenda)."

Technology centres

The Department of Biotechnology was trying to get scientists to think beyond research for research's sake, to include an entrepreneurial spirit, he said. The department was starting up to five technology centres a year within existing institutions, such as universities. One such centre would be started this year in Delhi University.

These centres would work in areas such as nanobiotechnology and stem cell research and immuno-proteomics with an applications oriented approach. "From this year, 10 per cent of the research funds of major agencies would go to nanotechnology," he said.

The Department of Biotechnology had also agreed with the Indian Council for Medical Research to "work together to expand the country's clinical research and clinical trials capacity," he said. An agreement was signed last week with research agencies in the U.S., which would promote joint research.

Four such projects had started, he said.

Focussed funding

"There is no need for every State to do biotechnology," Dr. Bhan said. The department would channel its funding towards those "clusters where most of the ingredients for the development of biotechnology were present," and showed promise of succeeding. Bangalore was one example of such a cluster, he said.

Others States where such clusters were developing include Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. A biotech park would be ready in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh by December, he said.

Korn Thapparansi, the Thai Minister for Science and Technology, who inaugurated the conference called for greater cooperation in biotechnology research between India and his country.

Mr. Thapparansi said Thailand, which aimed to become the "Kitchen of the World," had made agriculture and food processing a national strategic sector.

He said Thailand was looking at biotechnology as one of the ways to stay ahead of competition. The country was trying to increase yield and quality of its food crops, without losing the "uniqueness of Thai food."

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