Gist of Bioscience to Bioeconomy | Gist of Rajya Sabha TV / RSTV (now Sansad TV) - UPSC PDF Download

Context

Recently, the Global Bio-India 2021 Summit was successfully concluded with a session on Startup Conclave-Innovation Driven Bio-economy.

Background

• The theme of the event is ‘Transforming Lives’ with the tagline ‘Biosciences to Bio-economy’.
• Biotechnology sector is recognized as one of the key drivers for contributing to India's USD 5 Trillion economy target by 2024. 
• Indian Biotechnology sector is poised to grow exponentially over the next decade.

Summary of The Debate

Global Bio-India 2021

• It is an annual event organized by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (DBT-BIRAC).
• It is the largest Bio event which would showcase opportunities in Indian Biotechnology sector to the world.
• It is a mega international congregation of biotechnology stakeholders, including international bodies, regulatory bodies, Central and State Ministries, SMEs, large industries etc.
• It aims to deliberate on the opportunities and key challenges in the areas of bio-manufacturing, capacity-building, regulation & policies creating global supply chains for achieving a growth-oriented road-map.
• Objectives
  • Showcase and identify key biotechnological innovations, products, services, technologies from national and international companies, start-ups and research institutes;
  • Identify funding and collaboration opportunities for research and development;
  • Explore licensing options for existing products;
  • Attracting major contract projects from international companies as well as major global venture funding into India;
  • Create platforms for new idea evaluation and investments;
  • Opportunity for Indian State Governments to attract foreign investment into their respective States;
  • Discuss key trends and policy interventions across all sub-sectors including bio-pharma, bio-agriculture, bio-industrial, bio-energy, bio-manufacturing, bio-services etc. and establish takeaways;
  • Connect Indian Biotech ecosystem with international ecosystem;
  • Facilitate interactions of research institutions with the industry

Indian Biotechnology Sector

• India is among the top-12 destinations for biotechnology in the world, with approximately 3% share in the global Biotechnology industry.
• Indian Biotechnology industry's economy is valued at $70 billion in 2020 is expected to grow to 2 USD 150 Billion by 2025.
• According to World Bank's Doing Business Report 2020, India is now ranked 1st among South-Asian countries compared to 6th rank in 2014. 
• India was ranked 48th according to the Global Innovation Index Report 2020.

Biotechnology and Its Applications

• Biotechnology is nothing but the technology that uses biology to improve the quality of lives of people. It has wide applications and essential part of modern technology.
• However, biotechnology is not just a single technology. It is, in fact, a group of technologies that work with living cells and molecules and help find new solutions to improve the quality of our lives.

Applications

• Industry: Some of the industries use biotechnology to improve the efficiency of the industrial processes and reduce the adverse impact of these processes on the environment. 
  • The industries using biotechnology are textile, chemical manufacturing and paper and pulp manufacturing.
  • Chemical manufacturing uses biocatalysts developed through biotechnology for synthesizing chemicals. Biocatalysts help in manufacturing chemicals more economically and make them environmentally friendly.
• Environment: Biotechnology has developed microorganisms which feed on waste products to find nutrients. The bacteria digest the waste in the process and convert it to harmless by-products that are biodegradable. 
  • Environmental engineers make use of bioremediation to facilitate effective solid waste management through enzyme bioreactors.
  • The waste is disposed of through sewerage and in some cases converted to biofuel. 
  • Biodegradable plastic is another product synthesized from waste.
• Health: Proteins are produced for special purposes like insulin production for diabetic patients, artificial blood vessels, colonizing intestinal microorganisms to overcome digestive enzyme deficiencies, etc. 
  • Gene therapy is used to treat or cure diseases like AIDS, cystic fibrosis, and cancer that do not respond to medications and other therapies.

Conclusion

• Biotechnology sector is quite vast and its advantages are immense and virtually every industry uses biotechnology directly or indirectly. It finds application in diagnostics, textiles, pharmaceuticals, aquaculture, household products, forestry, forensics, environmental clean-up, food processing and chemicals enabling them to make new and better products.
• It is not just about the economic growth but also helping common people, touching their lives, finding solutions for them and the growth of biotechnology has been happening at a scorching pace in recent times and a lot more is expected in near future.

Department of Biotechnology

• The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is an Indian government Department set up in 1986 under the Ministry of Science and Technology facilitating research, capacity-building, technology and enterprise development in the field of biotechnology in the country. 
• The DBT has 16 autonomous institutes all over the country working on R&D in frontier areas and two public sector undertakings promoting bio-entrepreneurship and commercialization of technologies.  
• In attaining its mission, the DBT actively collaborates with more than 20 countries globally and has enabled efforts of more than 15000 Indian scientists resulting in about 6000 key publications and IP; over 250 technologies.

Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council

• BIRAC is a Section 8 "Not-for-profit Company" set up by Department of Biotechnology, under Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, as an interface agency to promote Industry-Academia interface. 
• Mandate of BIRAC is to nurture and empower the Biotech Innovation Ecosystem in India. To serve various dimensions, BIRAC operates mainly in 3 verticals i.e. Investment schemes, Entrepreneurship Development & Strategic Partnerships.  
• BIRAC works closely with all partners - National and International to leverage the strength and expertise, mobilize resources and extend the outreach of its activities for innovative affordable product development addressing the unmet need.