STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh on Saturday said that India is poised to be among top 5 Global Bio-manufacturing Hubs by 2025 .
The Science & Technology Minister said, Biotechnology has the potential to become an important instrument of global trade and bio-economy contributing to India’s overall economy.
The Union Minister said this while launching the website of “Global Bio-India – 2023”, a mega International congregation on Biotechnology, to be held at Pragati Maidan from 4-6 December, 2023.
Dr Jitendra said that our Bioeconomy witnessed double digit growth rate year-on-year in the last 9 years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India is now being rated among top 12 biotechnology destinations in the world, he said.
“In 2014, India’s bioeconomy stood at just about $10 Billion, today it is $80 Billion. In just 8/9 years it has gone (up) 8 times and we look forward to having $300 Billion by 2030,” he said.
Dr Jitendra said Bioeconomy is going to be a hugely lucrative source of livelihood in the times to come.
“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 7,500 kms long coastline and last year we launched the Samudrayaan which is going to dig the biodiversity beneath the seas,” he said.
Dr Jitendra said, today there are over 3,000 Agritech Startups and are very successful in areas like Aroma Mission and Lavender cultivation.
“About 4,000 people are engaged with Lavender cultivation and earning lakhs of rupees, quite a few of them do not have high qualifications, but are very innovative,” he said.
Dr Jitendra said, Department of Biotechnology has been supporting R&D innovations in Advanced Biofuels and ‘Waste to Energy’ technologies.
“In the future, garbage will be reduced to Zero. Everything will be recycled,” he said, citing the recycling technology developed by the Dehra Dun based Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP) by designing a van that collects waste cooking oil and converts it into biofuel.
