Karnataka is in the race to set up Central government’s biosynthetic technology centre.
The project is a virtual lab-cum-training centre to conduct research, support life sciences, biotech and pharma companies.
“The state is in the race along with Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to set up the biosynthetic technology centre,” said Srivatsa Krishna, Secretary, Karnataka Department of IT, BT and S&T.
“The quantum of funding will be determined by the Centre after receiving proposals from all the interested states. Meanwhile, Bioscience and Medical Technology Incubation Centre in Bangalore will be ready by June this year,” he added.
The incubation centre, built at a cost of ₹40 crore, has been equally shared by the Union government (₹20 crore) and the balance amount with land contributed by Karnataka. The facility is coming up at the Alexandria Helix Biotech Park, Electronics City.
The facility is a 20,000-square feet area for which civil works are over and the interiors are under way.
Srivatsa Krishna said, “The first-of-its-kind facility in the country will house young entrepreneurs who could immediately start operations as it is designed as a plug & play unit.”
Patent filingsKarnataka has leapfrogged to third position in biotech patent filings.
According to the report ‘Karnataka – The biotech hub of Asia,’ commissioned by the Department of IT &BT, “Of the top four patent filing regions in India, based on the percentage of patent filings between 2005 and 2010, Delhi tops with 32.9 followed by Maharashtra 17.3, Karnataka 10.3 and Tamil Nadu 9.2. Between 1991-94 and 2005-10, Karnataka succeeded in more than doubling its share in domestic patent applications. Biotech companies in Karnataka have also begun to engage in social innovation projects. According to the report, the companies in the state are engaged in education, healthcare, diversity, community development and skill development.
The social responsibility charter of biotech companies includes initiatives in the domains like community volunteering and environment medium relevance to stakeholders and companies.” Where it is high for education, healthcare, child and maternal health, vocational skills and entrepreneurship,” the study revealed.