Emphasising that the biotech sector is one of the most demand-driven sectors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the campaigns for Ease of Living in India over the years have opened up new possibilities for the sector.
He pointed out that developments in health, agriculture, energy, natural farming, bio fortified seeds are creating new avenues for the sector. The Prime Minister was addressing the Biotech Startup Expo here after inaugurating the two-day event.
Modi said the Biotech Startup Expo 2022 will strengthen the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' movement in the sector. The Biotech Startup Expo-2022 is a two-day event being held on June 9 and 10. The theme of the expo is 'Biotech Startup Innovations: Towards AatmaNirbhar Bharat'.
Modi said in order to transcend government-centric approach, the government is encouraging a culture of providing new enabling interfaces. He gave the example of Startup India for startups, IN-SPACe for the space sector, iDEX for defence startups, India Semiconductor Mission for semi conductors, Smart India Heckathons for encouraging innovations among the youth and also, the Biotech start-up Expo.
The government has said, the Biotech Expo will act as a platform to connect entrepreneurs, investors, industry leaders, scientists, researchers, bio-incubators, manufacturers, regulators and government officials. Maintaining that his government believes in strengthening every sector for giving momentum to the country's development, Modi said that it has changed the earlier approach of focusing on a few sectors while ignoring others.
He said India's 'bio-economy' has grown eight times in the last eight years and has reached USD 80 billion from USD 10 billion and noted the country is not far from reaching the league of top 10 countries in the global ecosystem of biotech. In the last eight years the number of startups in the country has increased from a few hundreds to over 70,000, adding that his government had worked to boost the ease of doing business and promote a culture of entrepreneurship, he said adding that these startups are established in about 60 different industries.
"The number of biotech incubators has increased from six in 2014 to 75 now. Biotech products have increased from 10 products to more than 700 today”, he said.
Noting that exports from some sectors have hit a record, he said supporting and developing every sector is the country's need and his government is exploring every means to give momentum to India's development. The biotech sector is very important in giving new momentum to the country's development, he said.
He said there are five big reasons why India is being considered a land of opportunities in the field of biotech namely diverse population and climatic zones, India's talented human capital pool, increasing efforts for ease of doing business in India, demand for bio-products increasing continuously in India and the country's biotech sector and its track record of success.
“Inculcating the spirit of 'sabka prayas', the government, through new institutions is bringing together the best minds of the industry on a single platform.
This is another big benefit to the country. The country gets new breakthroughs from research and academia, the industry helps in what is a real world view, and the government provides necessary policy environment and necessary infrastructure,” the Prime Minister further said.