Govt asks RBI to declare biotech as priority sector

To encourage investment in research and entrepreneurial activities in the biotechnology field, the government has asked the RBI to declare it as a priority sector to make lending easy for start-ups, Union Minister Y S Chowdary said.
The Minister of State for Science and Technology said his ministry is also working with the Finance Ministry to boost spending in the sector.
"We have asked the RBI to consider adding biotechnology as a priority sector for lending, so that the start-ups can easily get loans. We are also working with the Ministry of Finance on this matter.
"We are also in talks with the Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises to increase the credit limit given to this sector," Chowdary said.

The minister was speaking on the sidelines of a function organised by the Biotechnology Industry Research and Assistance Council (BIRAC) -- a PSU under the Department of the Biotechnology under the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Pushing for a greater assistance under the newly announced MUDRA Bank in the Union Budget, the minister said that the biotechnology sector should take advantage this newly announced bank.

Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank, with a corpus of Rs 20,000 crore and credit guarantee corpus of Rs 3,000 crore will help in lending money to small and medium size industries and start-ups.

"I am going to establish a help desk in the Ministry for assistance in this initiative," the minister said.
He added that while other ministries saw a drop in the budget, the Ministry of S&T budget has not only remained the same, but there has a been a slight increase in it.
Pitching to make India a country for scientific tourism, Choudary said the efforts should be made to in the field of science to create world class laboratories which can encourage foreign scientists to come and research in India.