Karnataka foresees Rs 1,000 cr investments

Karnataka is expecting an investment of over Rs 1,000 crore within the next two years in the biotechnology sector, establishing its pre-eminence in the country as the premier destination for this industry.

Disclosing this at the inauguration of Bangalore Bio 2004, Karnataka's Biotechnology Vision Group chairperson and Biocon CEO Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said the state had attracted Rs 750 crore of new investments in the biotech sector during FY 04.

"On the revenue front, Karnataka stood first in the country with a combined revenue of Rs 1,500 crore, including Rs 750 crore from exports in the last fiscal. During the same year, of the 25 new biotech firms set up in the country, 17 were located in Karnataka, taking the total number of companies in the state to 110, including 97 in Bangalore alone," Ms Shaw said.

In her address to over 500 delegates participating in the three-day mega event, Ms Shaw said that the biotech sector has the potential to create a million jobs across the country in the current decade. During the last fiscal, manpower in Karnataka increased to 9,000 people, which includes about 5,000 scientific personnel.

"In the last few years, India has clearly emerged on the global map of biotech industry and Bangalore has come to spearhead the growth of the sector," Shaw added.

Meanwhile, the state government has initiated the much awaited process of setting up a Biotechnology Park at Electronics City on the outskirts of Bangalore.

Reassuring the state's commitment to IT and biotechnology sectors, Karnataka chief minister N Dharam Singh has declared that the Biotech Park would come up in about 100 acres with an investment of Rs 100 crore by 2006.

Inaugurating the fourth edition of Bangalore Bio 2004 event, Singh said the state government would allocate the required funds for the Biotech Park, to be developed through public-private partnership.

"I'm making an initial commitment of Rs 10 crore on behalf of my government for this fiscal year towards the Biotech Park, which will also house the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology and the Centre for Human Genetics. In this context, I request the department of biotechnology, government of India to extend financial assistance of Rs 50 crore for the biotech project," Singh said.