Karnataka to get finishing school for biotechnology

State to tie up with Aussie varsities.

Karnataka is all set to get its first finishing school in biotechnology.

Biotechnology companies and the state government are planning to tie up with Australian universities for higher education in biotechnology and launch an initiative to get more schoolchildren interested in taking up lifesciences.

The finishing school will admit students who have graduated in lifesciences and train them so that they can be more industry-ready. The course duration will range from 1 year to 3 years. The school will be able to admit 100 students at a time and will be launched in six months.

The biotechnology industry in the state has been growing over 40 per cent per annum and needs about 25,000 professionals a year, which is growing at 30-40 per cent annually. Industry experts say that talent in the field is both short and expensive.

"Talent is expensive because a lot of it has to be imported. Overall the shortage is not so acute but in certain sectors of biotechnology, which are fairly recent we hardly have any people. For example, discovery research is getting bigger and bigger but there are very few people," chairman and managing director of Biocon India Ltd Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said on the sidelines of a meet to announce Bangalore Bio 2007.

"Biotechnology companies will be responsible for preparing the curriculum for the finishing school and with initiatives like this I think we will be able to bridge the gap in the next 3-4 years," she added.

Meanwhile, the Association of Biotech-led Enterprises is planning to tie with the state government to launch an initiatives in schools.

"We educate students in senior classes so that they can develop an interest in the field. Right now a large number of students are interested only in a career in engineering. We are hoping to change that," Managing Director of Metahelix Life Sciences K K Narayan said.

Karnataka has also tied up with Australia's Deakin University to send students for higher education in life sciences.