The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : "Efforts on to integrate IT with biotechnology"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 25, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

"Efforts on to integrate IT with biotechnology"

Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD: If Information Technology brought global recognition to the State and generated employment opportunities for youth, biotechnology would contribute to improving lives of millions of people and expand entrepreneurial opportunities, Assembly Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy said here on Monday.

Speaking at the inaugural session of national seminar on `Recent advances in Biotechnology and Bio informatics' organised by Mahatma Gandhi National Institute of Research and Social Action, Mr. Suresh Reddy said that biotechnology should be seen as a tool to solving environment, agriculture and health issues at an affordable cost. Biotechnology would pave way for increasing agriculture yield, improving seed quality through bioengineering and ensure sustainable development. India's billion population would turn out to be its great advantage if the young minds were inculcated with IT, BT and Nano Technology as the impact of these three important fields on quality of life in the coming days would be enormous, he said. The Government was working towards integrating IT with BT and bridging the gap between the technology driven and technology deprived by providing broadband width to rural areas. The Government allotted Rs. 4 crores for biotechnology development fund to attract other venture capitals to join the drive and sanctioned corpus fund of Rs. 10 crores towards research. The Director, Department of Biotechnology and Industries, A. Ashok, said the State emerged as Biotechnology hub through its proactive BT policies. About 50 per cent of Biotechnology comprised of bio-pharma industry. A National Animal Park would be set up to aid research in Genome Valley, Shamirpet. Kuntala Jayaraman, Dean, Vellore Institute of Technology, said food and health requirements of a billion people could not be met through traditional means with limited land and water and biotechnology was the only solution.

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