The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Biotechnology industry "needs" capital, regional networking to grow

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 23, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Biotechnology industry "needs" capital, regional networking to grow

Special Correspondent

Knowledge-based technology clusters should be developed in rural areas, says official

HUGE HAUL: Governor Surjit Singh Barnala takes a look at the medals before presenting them to S. Sargurunathan, Bachelor of Veterinary Science graduate, who won 26 of them, at the convocation of Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in Chennai on Friday. Animal Husbandry Minister P. Geetha Jeevan, Vice-Chancellor N. Balaraman and chairperson of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority S. Nagarajan are also in the picture. — Photo: V. Ganesan

CHENNAI: The biotechnology industry in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Delhi, where it grows through bio-clusters, suffers from missing factors such as availability of capital and regular regional networking for free flow of information, according to S. Nagarajan, chairperson of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority in the Union Government.

"If these things are in place, these cities will emerge as successful world-class clusters," he said, addressing the 11th convocation of Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS) here on Friday.

Cluster concept

Clusters in biotechnology, medical biosciences, life sciences and information technology played an important role in the promotion of research and product development. Cluster concept was still new in India and would become common in 10-15 years. Bio-clusters had grown unintentionally and were located in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi.

Calling for developing knowledge-based technology clusters in rural areas, Mr. Nagarajan said they needed policy prescriptions, stable fiscal and monetary policies, efficient capital markets, effective property rights regimes, targeted skills training and specialisation through liberal trade in goods, services and capital.

Though the country's investment in converting knowledge into usable products and technology had started yielding results, the current level of innovation was very low. Most of the public sector institutions were not designed for rapid and effective translation of scientific leads into technologies. They lacked capacity for product testing and scale-up from bench scale to manufacturing.

The Department of Biotechnology under the Union Science and Technology Ministry had taken the initiative to develop a cluster at Mohali near Chandigarh for the agri-food sector.

This would serve as a template for other States to augment their emerging areas such as the maize, poultry, meat industry, he said.

TANUVAS Vice-Chancellor N. Balaraman said the university established the "first-ever confirmatory diagnostic screening facility" for the chikungunya virus by genome sequencing through biotechnological means.

It successfully implemented a land reclamation project covering 500 hectares and a comprehensive project for livestock integration for 200 farmers in four districts affected by the 2004 tsunami. The Union Rural Development Ministry and the Department of Biotechnology supported the projects.

Governor and Chancellor Surjit Singh Barnala presented medals and degree certificates to students.

Pro-Chancellor of the university and Animal Husbandry Minister P. Geetha Jeevan was present.

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