Biotechnology is a fast emerging sector and is expected to play a key role in the new economy. India has many comparative advantages in terms of knowledge, skills, R&D facilities and costs in the sector. The institutional infrastructure in the country provides the basic foundation for these strengths to translate into business opportunities.Biotechnology in India can be divided into three broad areas - human and
animal health care, agricultural, and industrial. The core competence of Indian
Biotech industry exists in Handling fermentation-based products,Handling of labile fermentation-based compounds efficiently in downstream processing methods,Use of
plant and animal parts for extracting value added
products of high purity,Use of cell/microbial culture techniques,Plant breeding techniques, Plant cell/tissue culture, etc. The estimated average consumption of biotech products in India during 1997 was US$ 1,798 million in value terms. India has an edge over other countries to set up viable and competitive biotech enterprises and the areas of core competence include : Capacity in bioprocess engineering;
skills in gene manipulation of microbes and animal cells;Capacity in downstream processing and isolation methods;Skills in extraction and isolation of plants and animal products;Competence in recombinant DNA technology of plants and animals; Excellence in traditional and molecular marker assisted breeding of plants and animals; and Infrastructure in fabricating bio-reactors and processing equipment.
Biotechnology has been of great success in India and it has lead to Development and Production of
indigenous recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine by a number of companies,World Patents for a solid state fermentation called plafactor; US patents for F-virosome, Drug delivery system for gene therapy; US and European patents for refamicine shuttle vectors in E-coli; US patent in the production of hydrophilic nanoparticle for drug delivery system, etc. Production of indigenous HIV I&II Detection rapid Test Kit using naked eye visible agglutination of the whole blood and a confirmatory Western Blot Test Kit utilizing Indian strain; development of various other indigenous diagnostic kits and transfer to Industry.Introduction of transgenic Bt cotton and successful trial under contained conditions of a number of vegetable, horticulture and crop transgenics. Development of a number of indigenous rDNA products to be launched shortly like human insulin, growth hormone, G-CSF, Interferons (alpha 2a &2b), Erythropoetin etc.Initiatives for the establishment of various biotechnology parks in different States of the country, apart from establishment of biotechnology incubators, pilot plant facilities, etc. for the small enterpruners.
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