India's 'bio economy' has grown eight times in the last eight years and has reached $80 billion from $10 billion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, June 9, 2022, asserting that the country is not too far from reaching the league of top 10 countries in the global ecosystem of biotech.
“We have grown from $10 billion to $80 billion. India is not too far from reaching the league of top-10 countries in biotech’s global ecosystem,” he said. The Prime Minister underlined the contribution of Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) in the development of the sector in the country
Mr. Modi said that trust in the skill and innovation of India’s information technology professionals in the world was at “new heights” and this upbeat mood was now evident in the biotech sector as well as among the biotechnology professionals of India.”
According to the Prime Minister, there were five big reasons why India is being considered a land of opportunities in the field of biotech. First, its diverse population and diverse climatic zones; second, the country’s talented human capital; third, ease of doing business in India; fourth, the rising demand for bio-products in India; and fifth, India’s own biotech sector and its track record of success.
The major focus areas for the biotech sector are health, agriculture, energy, natural farming and bio-fortified seeds.
In the last eight years, the Prime Minister stated, the number of start-ups in India increased from a few hundreds to 70 thousand. These 70,000 start-ups were located in 60 different industries. Among these nearly, 5,000 startups were associated with biotech. Every 14th startup in the country was in the bio technology sector and more than 1,100 such bio tech startups have emerged in the last year itself, said Mr. Modi.
The number of investors in the biotech sector has risen by nine times and bio-tech incubators and funding for them has increased by seven times. Number of biotech incubators have increased from six in 2014 to 75 now. Biotech products have increased from 10 products to more than 700 today.
