Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore   

Krishna to inaugurate Bio 2003 today

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE April 14. The annual biotechnology jamboree held here since 2001 will start on Tuesday. The Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, will inaugurate it at 10 a.m. and announce the setting up of the biotechnology park. Bangalore Bio 2003 will end on Thursday evening.

This was stated by Vivek Kulkarni, Secretary, Information Technology and Biotechnology, and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon India, at a press conference here today. D.B. Inamdar, Minister of State for IT and Tourism, was present.

The once controversial, now low-profile, biotechnology park will be built at Electronics City here, giving shape to the much touted `IT and BT' slogan the State has adopted for itself. Mr. Krishna will lay the foundation stone of `Bangalore Helix', the biotechnology park, at the inauguration of Bio 2003.

The trade show has little for the farmers, and a discussion on genetically modified crops, has been relegated to a lone "public session".

Mr. Kulkarni and the others said the increased floor space and number of stalls this time was a sign of the growing importance of Bangalore in the global biotechnology business.

One stall, for example, is from Helpage India. There will be 120 other stalls, displaying expertise in bioprocessing, bio-instrumentation, bio-informatics, contract research, pharmaceuticals, and institutional and venture capital funding, according to an official release.

A conference on "Indian Biotechnology - Building a Global Business" will be held concurrently with the trade show. The conference will start on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at the J.N. Tata auditorium, Indian Institute of Science. Registration will open at the venue from 11 a.m. Postgraduate students in life sciences and biotechnology can register themselves by paying Rs. 500.

The opening session will be one on "Showcasing Institutional R&D". However, there are no scientists from any labs of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, at this session. Bangalore's own University of Agricultural Sciences too seems to have been entirely sidelined at the conference.

Other sessions include those on new technologies; informatics; a round table on venture capital funding for biotechnology ventures; bioprocessing; phyto-pharmaceuticals — vaccines and medicines for plants; clinical development in India; drug discovery; and the role of the Government in developing the biotechnology sector.

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