The Hindu : National : Biotech management centre coming

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Thursday, Jan 04, 2007
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Biotech management centre coming

P. Sunderarajan

Assessment council also to be set up

CHIDAMBARAM: Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday announced proposals to establish a national biotechnology management centre, with 10 regional technology transfer cells, and a biotechnology industry and development assessment council.

These would promote commercialisation of the scientific and technological outputs of public-funded R and D institutions, particularly in the emerging area of biotechnology. They would complement the two projects in the pipeline, an institute of transactional research in health to seamlessly dovetail outputs in genomic research to clinical trial stages, and research-industry clusters as joint ventures with major industry players. The first cluster with the focus on agri-food industry was coming up in Punjab.

Mr. Sibal was speaking at the inaugural function of the 94th session of the Indian Science Congress here.

Intellectual property

He said there was need to focus on creating economic value from outputs. A recent study of U.S. patents granted from Bangalore from 1995 to 2005 showed that only less than 10 per cent of the nearly 500 patents given were owned by Indian entities. This showed that Indian scientific and technical talent in India was creating intellectual property for foreign companies, whereas Indian firms were not taking adequate advantage of this resource.

The Ministry evolved a vertically integrated programme from the school to university level to raise the quality and quantity of scientific outputs. The initiatives included recognising and strengthening the research base in 20 `star' colleges in life sciences; a project for 50,000 schoolchildren from different parts of the country intermingling with the icons of Indian and global science; and a scheme to assure a career for at least 500 students annually.

The Ministry planned to mount mission-mode, networked programmes for developing new industrial processes, which would reduce pollution, and step up funding for research in 10 selected universities to bring them on a par with global levels.

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