India To Be Among Top 5 Global Bio-manufacturing Hubs By 2025: Jitendra Singh
Union Minister Jitendra Singh has said that India is poised to be among the top 5 global bio-manufacturing hubs by 2025. The Science and Technology Minister said that biotechnology has the potential to become an important instrument of global trade and a bio-economy contributing to India's overall economy.
The Minister said this while launching the website of "Global Bio-India – 2023", an international congregation on biotechnology to be held at Pragati Maidan from 4 to 6 December 2023.
Singh said that our bioeconomy witnessed a double-digit growth rate year-on-year in the last 9 years. India is now being rated among the top 12 biotechnology destinations in the world, he said.
“In 2014, India’s bioeconomy stood at just about USD 10 Billion, today it is USD 80 Billion. In just 8/9 years, it has gone (up) 8 times and we look forward to having USD 300 Billion by 2030,” he said.
Singh said the bioeconomy is going to be a hugely lucrative source of livelihood in the times to come.
“Biotechnology sector in India has evolved over the last three decades and has made significant contributions to various sectors including Health, Medicine, Agriculture, Industry and Bio-Informatics,” he said.
Singh said that biotech startups are crucial to India’s future economy. “Biotech startups have grown 100 times in the last 8 years from 52 odd startups in 2014 to 6,300 plus presently. Every day, three biotech startups are getting incorporated in India with aspirations to provide viable technological solutions,” he said.
Singh said that biotechnology is the technology of tomorrow, as IT has already reached its saturation point.
“India has a huge wealth of bioresources, an unsaturated resource waiting to be harnessed and an advantage in Biotechnology especially due to the vast biodiversity and the unique bioresources in the Himalayas. Then there is the 77,500-kilometer coastline, and last year we launched the Samuayaan which is going to dig the biodiversity beneath the seas,” he said.
Singh said that biotechnology startups are a different genre combining new research of biology and manufacturing, viz processing of living systems such as micro-organisms, self-cultures etc.
“Biotechnology provides you with a milieu, an environment that will be Clean, Greener and more compatible with your well-being, then your stake gets linked. And as time passes by, it also generates lucrative sources of livelihood, also the alternatives to petrochemical-based manufacturing, like bio-based products like food additives, bioengineering ties, animal feed products,” he said.
He said that today there are over 3,000 agritech startups that are very successful in areas like aroma missions and lavender cultivation.
“About 4,000 people are engaged in lavender cultivation and earning lakhs of rupees, quite a few of them do not have high qualifications but are very innovative,” he said.
The minister said, "The Department of Biotechnology has been supporting R&D innovations in Advanced Biofuels and ‘Waste to Energy’ technologies."
Singh said that biotechnology has emerged as a trending career option among the youth.
