The government of Gujarat has decided to use biotechnology as a tool to attract investments to the state. 

The state government had last week reconstituted the Gujarat Council of Biotechnology which will now be headed by state chief minister Narendra Modi. 

The government also has plans to set up Biotech Mission, an organisation which will work on issues related to biotechnology initiatives in the state. 

Gujarat-based pharmaceutical majors such as Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Zydus Cadila Healthcare, Intas Pharmaceuticals and Sun Pharma are at present investing heavily in research and development, and biotechnology research. 

Torrent Pharma has created a special division called Torrent Biotech, while Intas has its own exclusive biotech company, Inuds Biotherapeutics. 

Cadila Pharma has been playing a major role in the biotech segment with a state-of-the-art plant. 

“The state science and technology department is planning to set up a biotech venture capital fund. We are talking to various agencies, both private and government, which will work as an implementing agency. In another month, this plan will be finalised,” said Rajesh Kishore, secretary, science and technology, Gujarat. 

State government sources said that the Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd (GVFL) may participate in the venture fund plan. 

Under Biotech Mission research and development institutes will also be set up in the next one year. 

“The Biotech Mission, to be operational in the next two months, will be an organisation created for the effective mechanism and this will directly report to the science and technology department. 

Any entrepreneur, investor, existing companies in the state or any part of the country interested in setting up biotech projects in Gujarat will thus enjoy the benefits of a single-window system through the Biotech Mission. Also, there will be the Gujarat Council of Biotechnology under the chief minister to oversee the policy-making matters,” Kishore said. The council has 29 members including members from corporates, industries and various agencies. 

The state government is also planning to set up a bio-informatics institute, which may be located either in Gandhinagar or Ahmedabad. 

The state government has also s decided to fund various workshops and seminars, and awareness programmes for biotechnology in Gujarat in the next two years. 

“Individuals doing researches in the biotechnology segment will also be funded for furthering their projects by the state government,” said Kishore. 

“We are coming out shortly with a biotechnology policy which will focus on developing human resources. The lack of proper manpower and education had pulled down all our initiatives taken for the development of information technology in the state,” said a senior state government official. 

He also said that the state government has identified the thrust areas for investment which include healthcare and pharmaceuticals, agricultural biotechnology, industrial enzymes, bioinformatics, contract research, marine and environmental biotechnology.