The government has decided to set up laboratories for studying marine biology in coastal states and islands of Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshdweep, with a major one in the southern Peninsular region of the country.
The Department of Biotechnology under the aegis of Ministry of Science and Technology will start the work of setting up these laboratories, beginning this year.
"There will be laboratories studying marine biology in coastal states with a major one in the southern Peninsula, which will be based on a hub-and-spoke model. We will also set up laboratories in Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands."
"These laboratories will specifically study the marine biology. We will also coordinate with other laboratories working in this field," Secretary of Department of Biotechnology, K VijayRaghvan said.
Marine biology opens a new gamut of opportunities as it gives access to research in marine biology and its possible usage for betterment of people in the country which is endowed with an over 7,500 km-long coastline.
The US and Europe has several such research laboratories.
Incidentally, there are other laboratories under different departments/ministries researching on several aspects of oceanography. For instance the National Instituter of Oceanography in Goa and National Institute of Oceanography Technology, Tamil Nadu have been actively involved in several aspects of marine research.
"What we need to do is scale up our research in marine biology and collaborate more with other laboratories to understand marine biology.
