Our Bureau in Kolkata 

"India has a strong possibility to emerge as a superpower in the bio-technology sector," said the director of American Centre Rex Moser while speaking at a workshop on ‘Bio-technology out sourcing Emerging opportunities for Indo-US collaborations organised jointly by the Indian Chamber of Commerce, the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and the American Centre. 

India has a captive hub of bio-technology, bio-informatics and a rich diversity of genes making it the perfect ground for the bio-technology sector to grow in the near future at a fast pace. 

Meanwhile, officials from the ICC said that there are strong statistics to prove that India indeed has the potential to emerge as a superpower in this sector. 

The domestic biotechnology industry is expected to grow to $1.5 billion and witness major changes over the next five years. 

Even though India currently has a small two per cent share in the global biotech market, the statistics are expected to improve in the years ahead. 

The biotechnology market is growing rapidly, with the consumption of biotech products in India expected to jump from $1789 million in 1999 to around $4270 million by 2010. 

There is an immense potential for Indo-US collaboration in biotechnology in the form of joint ventures, collaborative research and public-private partnerships. 

Possible areas of collaboration include bio-informatics, genomics, vaccines, new drug discovery and agricultural bio-technology, among others.