M2L2: Challenges for the development of Biotech. in India

1.            Biotechnology is an extremely cutting-edge technology. It requires knowledge, skills, technology, capital, budget & proper training. NBDS doesn’t mention the microscopic details of it. Furthermore, there is no indication of financial outlay in it. Moreover, the existing financial support by the central government to this sector to the Department of Biotechnology is also very meagre (max 2.90% of total 49% funding in Gross expenditure on R&D).

2.            Biotechnology requires collaborative research that spans many different fields like agriculture, environment, stem cell, cancer, pest resistance & antibiotic resistance, biomaterials etc. This requires specialization with deep understanding of core subjects to cater an interdisciplinary research of this type. Our academic institutions lack the attitude to develop the curriculum, knowledge & the technical capacity of this type. The crude reality is they even lack an attitude to develop a culture to promote industry relevant research.

3.            Since Biotechnology is an interdisciplinary research, it requires an infrastructure built upon cluster-based approach to minimize communication gap between the lab & the field. For e.g., the institution working on antibiotic resistance & pest resistance should be located close to a hospital & cropland.

4.            While NBDS focusses upon developing the potential of existing institutions to achieve clean energy targets & processing of waste (electronic, industrial, plastic, urban solid waste, biomedical), it fails to address the structural challenges in India that impede the transition of knowledge into an end-use product.

5.            The entry 66 of Union list mentions that co-ordination and determination of standards in institutions for higher education or research and scientific and technical institutions, is the responsibility of the central government.

Entry 14 of State list mentions that Agriculture, including agricultural education and research; protection against pests and prevention of plant diseases.

The entry 25 of Concurrent list mentions that Education, including technical education, medical education and universities is a joint responsibility of the union & the state government. Lack of coherence in the approach by both the state and the union government results into lack of clarity among investors and businesses.

6.            Hence the need of the hour, is to do a micro-planning of this strategy that covers the issues & challenges faced by each stakeholder like academia, industry, R&D labs, markets etc.

The transmission & distribution of knowledge can’t be left upon market forces, whose sole purpose if making profits. It needs government intervention to promote grassroots innovation in social sectors like healthcare, food processing, clean energy & other technology intensive sectors like sanitation, water, electricity, sanitation, telecommunication, urban planning etc.

India is rapidly urbanizing so is the problem of urban solid waste, that is taking a toll on existing institutions to tackle it. Environmental biotechnology is an absolutely new branch of biotechnology that addresses such environmental problems, such as the removal of pollution, renewable energy generation or biomass production, by exploiting biological processes. This offers us low cost, low capital-intensive techniques that can be carried out on site. This can also be used during mining process to reduce the immense damage that the conventional techniques do to the environment. India has an immense opportunity to take leadership and act as a knowledge exporter in this field.

Way forward: The government should adopt the following steps

§  Develop infrastructure & undergo technology upgradation in research institutions

§  Credit & CSR, Relaxing regulations & taxes to promote R&D in Private sector

§  Develop an entrepreneurship culture in schools & colleges through educational other kinds of support programs.

§  Increase awareness & better information infrastructure in public domain regarding the access to market & raw materials

§  Developing skills set

§  Increase sources for market capitalization & funding, venture capital etc.

§  Improve investment climate

§  Promote best practices in MSMEs

§  Support/promote & facilitate technology transfer to promote the best & advanced production techniques from developed countries in our institutions

§  Improve diffusion of knowledge by expansion of ICT.

§  Faster clearance of IPR.

§  Adopt cluster-based approach for R&D among academia, industry, R&D labs, markets etc.

Considering all these issues, we need an integrated & a coherent framework that ensures homogeneity, technology transfer & coordination among states. Furthermore, since India is a signatory to Cartagena protocol, adequate safeguards should be in place to prevent these technologies falling into wrong hands. Only then it would be possible to achieve the targets mentioned under the NBDS 2015-2020.

The cons of Biotechnology

There is also a dark side to this technology. This technology is very new & we haven’t compiled the data of each & every gene in a library or an encyclopedia. Efforts are still going on means this is a very grey area. India being a member of Cartagena protocol on Biosafety should increase transparency & speed in biosafety clearing mechanism through GEAC (unlike wait & watch that happened during the case of Bt Brinjal & GM Mustard (DMH-11) wherein the government never announced if they had done a detailed transcriptome analysis or not.)

This technology can also be used to make Biological weapons (Bioterrorism that can poison water supply, Anti-crop warfare that can kill all the crops, Bio-warfare, Bio-crimes etc.) Thus, we need an institutional framework or architecture to make sure it doesn’t slip out & create a havoc for the society like Anthrax.

Need of the hour: augment the capacity of existing educational & academic institutions in terms of expert human resource to train & deliver the knowledge to the students, create industry academia linkage, promote skill development, promote R&D & IPR, build an infrastructure to convert ideas registered as IP in biotechnology into marketable products etc.

Conclusion: Biotechnology has enormous applications. However, much more need to be done to tap the unlocked potential of this sector in promoting development & creating jobs.

Bioremediation technologies to clean up oil spills These techniques can be divided into two parts in-situ and ex-situ When microbes that are natural or genetically engineered are used to clean up the site, it will be categorized as in-situ. In the year 2011, during Mumbai oil spills, the technique known as ‘Oil zapper’ was used. It is developed by TERI and supported by the DBT (Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India). Much as its savvy name suggests, the Oilzapper feeds on hydrocarbon compounds present in crude oil and oily sludge (a hazardous hydrocarbon waste generated by oil refineries) and converts them into harmless CO2 and water. TERI then has developed one more oil sludge degrading consortia of microbes known as ‘Oilivorous-S’. This contains one additional bacterial strain that makes the former more effective against sludge and crude oil with high-sulphur content. (Oil Zapper had five bacterial strains). This was used to clean oil spill that happened in the year 2016 at Chennai, Ennore coast. Ex-situ technique involves Bio-piling Also referred to as Eco-piling, it is a bioremediation technology in which excavated soils are mixed with soil amendments, the compost is then formed into layers, and enclosed for treatment. The basic bio-pile system includes a treatment bed, an aeration system, an irrigation/nutrient system and a leachate collection system. Moisture, heat, nutrients, oxygen, and pH are controlled to enhance biodegradation. An irrigation/nutrient system is buried under the soil to pass air and nutrients through the soil. Soil piles can be up to 20 feet high. They may be covered with plastic to control runoff, evaporation, and volatilization, as well as to promote solar heating.