New Delhi: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, DrJitendra Singh Sunday said, Government will promote Industry driven StartUps .
Addressing the 37th Foundation day of Department of Biotechnology (DBT), as chief guest, at National Institute of Immunology (NII) here, DrJitendra Singh called for equal stakes with equal partnership and responsibility by Industry to sustain the StartUps. He said, it will be possible to make StartUps sustainable, if Industry from the very beginning identifies the theme/subject/product and invests matching equity.
The Minister assured that support, technical and financial, has never been a constraint under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Government to promote the “Innovation Ecosystem” in the country.
Giving the example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of an AtmaNirbhar Bharat, where India’s Vaccine strategy brought together academia, research, pharma and industry together in a partnership with an eye on meeting the current as well as possible future challenges, DrJitendra Singh said, the idea behind initiatives like this is to have a sustainable partnership in the long run and provide a sustainable source of livelihood to India’s youth. He added that the Government of India, led by Prime Minister Modi, is encouraging industrial outreach by extending all possible support.
The Minister recalled that last year he had launched Single National Portal “BioRRAP” for Biotech researchers and Start-Ups and also to cater to all those seeking regulatory approval for biological research & development activity in the country and thus offer a huge relief for “Ease of Science as well as Ease of Business”. He asserted that India is poised to become a Global Bio-manufacturing Hub and will figure among the top 5 countries of the world by 2025.
DrJitendra Singh reiterated that India’s bio-economy has grown 8 times in the last 8 years under Prime Minister Modi from $10 billion in 2014 to over $80 billion in 2022.Similarly, Biotech Startups have grown 100 times in the last 8 years from 52 odd startups in 2014 to 5300 plus in 2022. He said, 3 Biotech Startups were incorporated every day in 2021 and a total of 1,128 biotech startups were set up in 2021 alone, signalling the rapid growth of the sector in India.
Dr Jitendra Singh pointed out that the Biotechnology Sector in India has evolved over the last three decades and has made significant contributions in various sectors including health, medicine, agriculture, industry and bioinformatics, due to enormous support received both from government & private sector. He underlined that the Biotechnology Sector has seen a rapid growth in the last 9 years and India is now being rated among top 12 biotechnology destinations in the world.
He said, more than three times funds allocated to this sector compared to pre-2014 era to make India globally competitive in biotechnology research, innovation, and entrepreneurship and also paving the way for the promising future.