The Hindu Business Line : Bose Institute to set up biotech park in Kolkata

THE Bose Institute, a premier research institution named after the physicist Satyen Bose, has planned to set up a biotechnology park in city. This was announced here on Thursday by Prof Masood Siddiqi, director of the institute, at a workshop on Bio-tech Outsourcing, organised jointly by the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.

Later, Prof Siddiqi told Business Line that the institute will provide the basic infrastructure - land, building, laboratories and the scientists' pool. To begin with, the park will provide in-house ready facilities for the plant bio-technology. Subsequently, medical, environmental, reproductive biotech research and bio-informatics operations will be added on as core facilities, he said.

The institute will soon invite proposals from the industry and government for participation in the project.

Apart from R&D institutions, the proposed Park will house technology transfer consultancy firms, production and marketing outfits. Linkages with venture capitalists and financial institutions are being worked out.

He said more than Rs 350 crore of corporate investments have been made in the field of biotechnology so far in the country and investment from the Government is said to be around Rs 100 crore. However, the foreign direct investment in biotechnology has been steadily increasing in the past few years.

According to him, every State gradually was jumping on to the bio-tech bandwagon. However, there is a distinct trend of finding out niche areas within the broad field. For example, in Karnataka, bio-informatics and industrial bio-tech ventures have taken the lead. In Andhra Pradesh, it is bulk drugs, and Maharashtra has opted for medical and industrial bio-tech activity, he observed.

In West Bengal the trend is towards contractual research, drug designing, development of bio-pesticides and fertilisers.

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