India must emerge as leader in low-cost vaccines by 2020:Kalam

Former president A P J Kalam today said India should emerge as the leader of low-cost vaccines for HIV, cancer and Malaria, and set the target of producing 20 per cent of world generics drugs by 2020.
"India is rich in bio-diversity which could be of immense use in the field of drug evolution and the Pharma industry and pharmacists should do exhaustive research and evolve drugs based on traditional Indian plants and herbs to combat many of the prevalent diseases around the world," he said referring to his 'Pharma Vision 2020'.
The 11th President said that since research was the foundation of academic excellence, there was a need to apply new methods and techniques to make the country a "leader in real terms".

He was speaking at the first convocation of Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences here.
"India will have to graduate into knowledge and innovative research to emerge as leader in real terms as research was foundation for academic excellence and we have to apply new methods and techniques to take the country to the summit globally," Kalam said.
Sharing his personal experiences on how science had made a difference to the lives of people, he said that the purpose of real education is to lead the youth to be the best in the selected field.

"Science, technology, and environment will have to go together for the development of new age science of nano-technology having tremendous application potential in medicine, electronics and material science" Kalam said, adding that use of nano-robots for drug delivery was not far away.

Also speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh urged the universities to strive for excellence and said that "universities must endeavour to develop into an internationally recognised centre of research and education to be able to meet the future needs and challenges in biotechnology, pharmaceutical industry, food technology, nanotechnology, information technology and other disciplines."
He said the state government was laying special emphasis on harnessing the natural wealth of medicinal plants, besides it had earmarked Rs 10 crore for raising 45 lakh herbal plant species in the State this year.
The CM said that the state government was according high priority to education and 17.6 per cent of the total state budget of was being spent on this vital sector.