Union Minister Jitendra Singh today said that India’s bio-economy saw a jump from $8 billion in 2014 to $100 billion and is further targeting to reach $150 billion by 2025.
While addressing a discussion meeting in New Delhi which focused on fostering the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the union minister commented, “India’s bioeconomy was just about $8 billion in 2014 and now under PM Narendra Modi we have at least awakened to the merits of biotechnology and bioeconomy. It has grown upto $100 billion, now we are targeting $150 billion by 2025. This is going to be the ‘future value addition’ to India’s economy in the years to come…We rank 12th in the world, 3rd in the Asia Pacific as far as bioeconomy is concerned and rank one in vaccine production.” He also added that biotechnology has the potential in becoming instrument of global trade.
Singh further added, “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 also said that a recent survey conducted among class 12 students has showed that biotechnology is ranked as a preferred stream among students as compared to earlier figures were the stream was nowhere close.
“Tools like synthetic technology, genome editing, microbial bioresources and metabolic engineering are now talked about more often, particularly when we linked it (genetic engineering) with the management of diseases, people got more enthusiastic,” union minister Singh added.
Marking the ‘World Bioproduct Day’, Jitendra Singh also launched the DBT social media campaign #IChooseLiFE to promote biomanufacturing and making use of bioproducts.
