'Biotech, IT need investments'

Our regional bureau deconstructs 'Maharashtra: Vision 2010 ? Strategies & Action'

Genes are the new green gold and there is tremendous potential in genetic research which needs to be tapped, said Swati Piramal, director of Nicholas Piramal. Piramal was speaking at the Maharashtra Vision : 2010-Strategies and Action' conference on Tuesday.

She said, "If the 20th century belonged to steel, cement, oil, gas and IT, then the 21st century is going to be shaped by bio-technology and information technology together."

"India is already a superpower in the IT sector and it has all the requisites to become a global power in BT also, but there is urgent need for adequate investment in research and development, infrastructure and our legal system also must keep pace with the rapid changes in technology," Piramal said.

"Today, Indian BT companies don't want to venture into experiments in cloning of animals as there are no laws in India which provide a legal framework for carrying out such experiments," she pointed out.

On the infrastructure front, she said there is a need for constant availability of skilled knowledge workers and uninterrupted power supply and on both these counts there is considerable scope for improvement in the state's performance.

The state government should immediately take steps to introduce a new syllabus in the universities so that, bio-technology graduates meet the industry's requirements, Piramal said, while speaking to Business Standard about the need to upgrade the state's human resources.

Piramal added, "There is a tremendous mismatch between what the universities are producing and industry's needs. And this is happening primarily because our universities don't have the necessary infrastructure to train the students."

One can't blame the universities also as basic machines in a bio-technology laboratory like ESMS cost no less than Rs 1 crore, so there is a necessity to provide adequate finances to our universities, so they can give practical training to the students and not just the theoretical one".

The industry is ready to provide the necessary infrastructure to universities through public-private partnerships but for such partnerships to happen there must be a policy framework in place and to prepare this policy framework the government has to take initiative and engage in dialogue with industry and universities, said Piramal.

She further said, "Maharashtra, today is the leader in clinical trials in India but in these days of rapid technological innovations, one needs new guidelines but the government of Maharashtra is sitting on an ethic policy for such trials for two years and no ethics Board has been constituted despite, repeated demands from the industry".

Maharashtra had taken the right step a few years back by appointing a BioTech Mission but this mission is currently dysfunctional and meets hardly once a year, if this is the case, then how such a mission would be able to provide the necessary direction for the state's progress towards becoming the BT hub of India, Piramal questioned.