Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology on cloud nine

National status opens doors to huge fund flow, research

It's celebration time at the the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology here in Thiruvananthapuram following the Finance Minister's Budget proposal to accord it a national research centre status.

Speaking to Business Standard, director of the centre, M Radhakrishna Pillai, said, "the new development is the recognition of the work done by the centre in the past years. The centre's research in agricultural and medical biotechnology has attracted a lot of attention in the past few years. Now, with a national centre status coming our way, we can look forward to more effective research work."

At present, the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology comes under the Kerala State Council for Science and Technology and is one among the five such institutes in the state. With the national status, it will come under the Union Ministry of Science and Technology.

Apart from the grants sanctioned according to the Planning Commission approvals, it can also look forward to grants from international bodies like the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the like. Funds are expected to pour in from within the country as well as from abroad. The centre can also look forward to international collaborations in future.

The centre, which has the expertise of 29 full-time scientists and about 75 PhD students who are involved in research work has its focus on medical as well as plant biotech studies, the director said.

While the agri biotech research focuses on pepper and ginger, the two cash crops, which have a major role in the bringing in commodity revenue, medical biotech studies focus on modern diseases.

Research programmes on cancer, tuberculosis, Alzheimers, dementia, infertility, etc, are being effectively conducted by the centre's scientists. These research programmes are in themselves a unique 'drug discovery initiative' too attached with all of them, Pillai pointed out.

This apart, combining plant biotechnology and medical biotechnology, the centre has initiated research on njavara, an indigenous rice variety. Njavara is immensely popular in the ayurvedic treatment and is known to the world for its anti-rheumatic capabilities.

With the national research centre status, the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology now dreams big and looks forward to expanding all research programmes and also get involved in more medical biotech programmes, Pillai added.