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like emergence of new pests in Punjab has affected the agriculture production in a major way . In southern states too , soil salinity is a major issue as there are only few Bt crops that work in it .
India ’ s food productivity is a huge challenge . We have to improve the yield and the productivity will only improve if we embrace new technology . We have touched maximum yield in agriculture and now we need innovation .
Nobody is championing the cause . It is an uncomfortable choice . During Late Mrs Indira Gandhi ’ s time , we started the Operation Flood . Launched in 1970 , it was a project of India ' s National Dairy Development Board ( NDDB ), which was the world ' s biggest dairy development program . It was taken on the mission mode , and the results were obvious . Similarly , biotechnology today requires a mission which will decide on the regulatory approvals , a dedicated minister who has high political weightage to drive it . Otherwise , with increasing population , India is working on a time bomb .
Biotechnology doesn ’ t have any immediate political benefit . It has got a five to ten year cycle . The Department of biotechnology which I feel is a politically unimportant department , has to get its proper due place . It has to get a separate ministry for a proper attention . A dedicated ministry can deal with the regulatory approvals in a better way rather than current cumbersome approval process from the various ministries where a lot many people don ’ t actually even understand the basics .
How have we fared on the biopharma front ? Are you satisfied that now India is being talked about as a future biosimilar hub ?
I will begin by saying that the future of Indian medicine is going to be biotech . From new treatments such as immunotherapy , preventive methods such as vaccines are slowly catching up . However , I feel that we still have an industry that has remained nascent for a long time . We have only few big names to talk about . Biocon and couple of companies have made India proud but then we have been unable to scale up .
Coming to biosimilars , I would say the nation ’ s challenge is that whether we are just going after a short term growth or a long term strategy . What I am trying to convey is that should India only bank on biosimilars or we are also going to take up long chain molecules and work on it . So we have to ask
ourselves a question that is we a country that will have its shortcuts or we are ready to innovate . The entrepreneurial ecosystem will allow biotech to thrive or not . Biotechnology manufacturing is again complex . We require many centres of excellences to build the capabilities .
Do you agree that the successive governments have been unable to work on a clear strategy to develop a skilled workforce for this industry ?
Lot of private universities have mushroomed in the country . The focus on the education has been replaced by competition to create huge campuses and facilities . The number of government teachers has gone down as compared to private ones . Students have to learn new technology by practical hands on training and only the comfort zones will not make them scientists . Cutting across governments , there has indeed been a lack of clear policy on this .
Privatization of education is fine but it should not be only a means of business . The responsibility is much beyond that . I believe that the biotechnology can only happen only with the government support . Hardcore basic as well as advance research is possible only in government backed universities . We have to give an option of long term safe career options to our PhD students and attract back those who left due to lack of opportunities in their own country .
The innovation will have to be funded with good financial support . Whether it is Max Planck , Germany or National Institue of Health , United States , everywhere in the world public funding has a great role to play . In India , we have left have our research and development or education to private players thinking that the job is done . Perhaps we think that there is no return on investments due to the long gestation period . But there has to be a realization that biotechnology is the future and we cannot compete with the world without it . The biotechnology is a sector with immense job creation opportunities . PM Modi talks about a lot about it but we have not seen any major results on this .
What are the remedies do you suggest ? Should we do lot more Public Private Partnerships to bring both the academia and industry closer ?
The central laboratories have to be encouraged to do the cutting edge science . I can see that the DBT institutes are doing well . CSIR laboratories too must buck up . We cannot say that we have created few
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BioVoiceNews | July 2016