Biotech regulator on cards, says Prithviraj Chavan

19 June 2009

The union government will soon set up a biotechnology regulatory authority involving the private sector and related bodies, according to union minister of state for science and technology Prithviraj Chavan. As part of its national 'BT' development strategy, the centre has already introduced a legislation to protect intellectual property rights for state-run research and development projects, he said.

At the same time, the central government is setting up three major biotech clusters at Mohali, Faridabad and Bangalore, Chavan told the Bio 2009 conference in Bangalore which kicked off on Thursday.

The flagship biotechnology event of Karnataka state is also probably Asia's largest meet on BT. As many as 400 companies from across the world are participating in the three-day event involving more than 700 delegates.

The union government is also setting up the country's first Bio-IT centre at the Institute of Bio-informatics and Applied Biotechnology in Bangalore, India's information technology capital. It involves participation by the government and industry with Rs35 crore earmarked for the project. The centre will contribute the majority of the funds, with the Software Technology Parks of India, the government of Karnataka and the private sector contributing the rest.

Speaking on the occasion, Kiran Majumdar, chairperson, Biocon, said that BT would play a major role in tackling global warming, diseases and other areas.

About the performance of the sector in India, she said that last year the revenues were Rs12,137 crore, a growth of 18 per cent over the previous year. While it was below the growth seen in the earlier years, it showed that almost 60 per cent was accounted for by exports.