Biotechnology has been globally recognised as a rapidly
emerging and far reaching technology. It is a frontline area of science
which plays a key role in the growth and development of a nation. It refers
to any technological application that uses biological forms and systems,
in a controllable manner, in order to produce new and useful products
or processes as well as modify the existing ones. It seeks to provide
benefit not only to mankind, but also to other life forms, such as micro-organisms.
It also helps to maintain an optimum ecological balance in the environment
by reducing harmful hydrocarbons, controlling pollution, etc.
In India, the biotechnology is among the fastest growing knowledge based sectors. It has been considered as a powerful enabling technology
that can revolutionize agriculture, healthcare, industrial processing
and environmental sustainability. Nowadays, it is increasingly being used
to develop and design uniquely improved varieties of crops, new pharmaceutical
products, plethora of chemicals, cosmetics, fertilizers, growth enhancers,
processed foods, health care aids and environment-related substances,
etc. Indian biotech segment has been making rapid strides on the global
platform. There are large number of therapeutic biotech drugs and vaccines,
being currently produced and marketed in the country and helping mankind
enormously. The sector registered a revenue of $ 1.07 billion and recorded
a 36.55 per cent growth in the year 2005-06.
India has been reorganized as a mega bio-diversity country.
The biotechnology offers avenues to convert country's diverse biological
resources into economic wealth and employment opportunities. There are
several factors that create the impetus for India to develop exceptional
capabilities in the realm of biotechnology. They are:- large reservoir
of scientific human resource, that is, a strong pool of scientists and
engineers; cost effective manufacturing capabilities; number of national
research laboratories employing thousands of scientists; centers of academic
excellence in biosciences; several medical colleges, educational and training
institutes offering degrees and diplomas in biotechnology, bio-informatics
and biological sciences; vibrant drugs and pharmaceutical industry; as
well as fast developing clinical capabilities.
In India, the Department
of Biotechnology (DBT), under the Ministry of Science and Technology,
is an apex authority for the development of biotechnology sector. It has
been set up for the purpose of planning, promoting and coordinating various
biotechnological programmes and activities in the country. It is the nodal
agency for providing grant-in-aid support to national research laboratories,
universities and research foundations for biotechnology related activities
in different sectors like health care, agriculture, environment and industry.
The main responsibilities of the Department are to:-
- Promote large scale use of biotechnology
- Identify and set up centres of excellence for R&D
in biotechnology and related manufacturing fields
- Establish infrastructure facilities to support R&D and production
- Act as an agent of the Government for import of new recombinant
DNA based biotechnological processes, products and technology
- Evolve bio-safety guidelines for laboratory research,
production and applications
- Initiate scientific and technical efforts related to
biotechnology
- Develop integrated programmes for human resource development
- Promote international collaborations for expanding knowledge
base of biotech sector
- Serve as a nodal agency for collection and dissemination
of information relating to biotechnology.
The Department has eight autonomous institutions mandated to work on various aspects of medical, agriculture and industrial biotechnology. These are:-
While, the public sector undertakings in the Department,
working for the development of biotech sector, are:-
Further, the 'National Bio-Resource Development Board (NBDB)' has been
set up under the Department, in order to decide the broad policy framework
for effective application of biotechnological and related scientific approaches
for research and development as well as sustainable utilization of bioresources,
especially for development of new products and processes. The Board seeks
to develop a scientific plan of action for contributing to the economic
prosperity of the nation through accelerated research and development
using the modern tools of biosciences. A National Steering Committee has
been constituted to support the activities of the board. In its first meeting held in January 2000, NBDB has identified three priority areas, such as:- (i) preparation of digitised inventories of plant, animal, microbial, and marine resources; (ii) R&D projects, programme support, establishment of centres of excellence, training activities and demonstrations, for the development of bioresources for special areas such as north-eastern region, Himalayan region, coastal and island ecosystems, desert region, Indo-Gangetic Plain and Peninsular India; and (iii) knowledge empowerment and human resource development.
The other important functions of the board are to:-
- Evolve effective ex-situ conservation strategies for
bioresources of potential scientific and economic value
- Develop predictive groupings of biological resources
through well-established molecular lineages
- Construct gene maps of bioresources that can be used
for locating useful genes
- Promote the use of biological software in the management
of agricultural pests and pathogens
- Promote value addition to bioresources and strengthen
bioinformatics
- Train human resource for the achievement of all such
objectives.
The Department has been making significant achievements
in the growth and application of biotechnology in the broad areas of:-
(i) agriculture, in the form of increased agricultural productivity; development
of disease, drought and pest resistant varieties; production of high yielding
varieties of transgenic organisms (plants and animals); development of
hybrid seeds, synthetic/ artificial seeds and genetically engineered crops;
improvement in food security by raising crop tolerance to adverse weather
and soil conditions; etc. (ii) health care, in the form of manufacturing
of safe and cost-effective vaccines; development of bio diagnostic kits
to ensure early detection of various diseases; production of various therapeutic
proteins; use of DNA fingerprinting; etc. (iii) industry, in the form
of preparation of various acids and alcohols; production of vitamins,
antibiotics, steroids, number of pharmaceutical drugs and chemicals ;
prevention of industrial products from spoilage; etc. (iv) environment
and energy, in the form of pollution control; conversion of bio-degradable
waste completely into energy like bio-gas fuel; restoration of degraded
lands; development of biosensors for detection of pollutants; treatment
of industrial effluents; etc.
In order to supplement such efforts and to attract large
investments into the biotech sector, the Department has been undertaking
several policy initiatives and measures from time to time. The most important
being, the announcement of 'National Biotechnology Development Strategy'
as a overall policy framework in order to boost the biotech industry.
It takes stock of what has been accomplished and provides a set up for
future, within which strategies and specific actions need to be taken
to promote the sector. This policy aims to chalk out the path of progress
in areas such as agriculture and food biotechnology, industrial biotechnology,
therapeutic and medical biotechnology, regenerative and genomic medicine,
diagnostic biotechnology, bio-engineering, nano-biotechnology, bio-informatics
and IT enabled biotechnology, clinical biotechnology, manufacturing and
bio-processing, research services, bio-resources, environment and intellectual
property law.The main objectives of this policy framework are to:- (i)
set out the direction for strengthening India’s academic and industrial
biotech research capabilities; (ii) work with business houses, Government
and academia to move biotechnology from research to commercialisation;
(iii) foster India’s overall industrial development; (iv) inform
people about the science, applications, benefits and issues of biotechnology;
(v) enhance the teaching and workforce training capabilities for the growth
of biotech; (vi) establish India as a preeminent international location
for biotechnology. In other words, it focuses on issues like human resource
development, academic and industry interface, infrastructure development,
lab and manufacturing, promotion of industry and trade, biotechnology
parks and incubators, regulatory mechanisms, public education and awareness
building.
The setting up of biotech parks and biotech incubators centres as well as training and pilot projects in various States and organizations
provide an excellent template for promotion of biotech start up companies.
Under this, there are schemes of providing financial/logistical support
to those young entrepreneurs who are not in a position to incur high capital
expenditure in the biotech industry, but have the capabilities to develop,
design and perfect new biotech products and processes by utilizing the
biotech incubators and pilot level facilities. Some of the existing biotech
parks/incubation centres and pilot projects are:-
- Biotech Park at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
- Biotechnology Incubation Centre, Hyderabad, Andhra
Pradesh
- Biotechnology Incubation Centre/Pilot plant facilities
at Kerala
- Biotechnology Incubation Centre/Pilot plant facilities
at Himachal Pradesh
- Biotechnology Park/ Incubation Centre and Common Instrumentation
Facility at Bangalore
Besides, the Guidelines for 'Stem Cell Research and Therapy' have been formulated in order to provide a mechanism to ensure that research with human stem cells is conducted in a responsible and ethically sensitive manner and complies with all regulatory requirements pertaining to biomedical research in general and stem cell research in particular. These guidelines aims to:- (i) lay down general principles for stem cell research and therapy keeping in view the ethical issues. (ii) formulate specific guidelines for derivation, propagation, differentiation, characterization, banking, and use of human stem cells for research and therapy.
Further, India has been the first country in the world to establish in 1987, a Biotechnology Information System (BTIS) network in order to create an infrastructure that enables it to provide support to biotechnology sector through the application of Bioinformatics. It helps to create human resources in bioinformatics and carry out research in its different areas. Following are the major thrusts of the programme are to:-
- Undertake advanced research in frontier areas of bioinformatics and computational biology
- Develop world class human resource in bioinformatics
- Establish effective academia-industry interface
- Pursue and promote international cooperation with leading institutions, organizations and countries in the world
- Create world-class platforms for technology development, transfer and commercialisation
Fifty-two Bioinformatics Facilities (BIF) have been established towards introducing innovation in Biology Teaching through BioInformatics (BTBI). These facilities act as a centralized resource of individual institutions to support bioinformatics tools.
International collaborations in biotechnology have also been a major strength of the Department of Biotechnology, with an increasing number of countries renewing their interest in collaboration with India. These are being pursued as an important vehicle for expanding the knowledge base and developing expertise which would accelerate the pace of growth in R&D in the country. In the recent times, there has been a steady progress in international collaboration in biotechnology resulting in many important research projects, products and technologies. Some of them are:- Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) have been signed with Denmark and Finland and joint call for proposals have been issued; Joint projects have also been funded with the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), UK; Department has signed two memoranda with Agriculture and Agri-Food, Canada and the National Research Centre, Canada, respectively; New agreements on vision research with NIH, USA and an amendment to the agreement with Contraceptive Research and Development Programme (CONRAD), USA have also been signed; etc.
As a result of all these, India has been emerging as a
biotechnology hub on a world map and is being looked upon as a preferred
investment destination. Advances in molecular biology and biotechnology
has led to an overwhelming impact on the economic well being of the society.
The Indian biotechnology sector is gaining global visibility for emerging
business opportunities and holds great promise in meeting the needs of
the growing population for innovative medicines, higher productivity in
agriculture and value addition including nutritional enhancement and protection
of environment. However, there are several social concerns that need to
be addressed in order to propel the emergence of biotechnology innovation
in the country, such as conserving bioresources and ensuring safety of
products and processes, etc. Accordingly, both the Government and the
private sector have to play an important role in educating and protecting
the interests of the masses as well as advancing the benefits of modern
biotechnology to them.
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