Science & Technology in the Service of Society
Major Developments/ Achievements Of Department Of Bio-Technology
Major Developments/ Achievements Of Department Of Bio-Technology
Global Biotechnology Summit on “Destination India”
A two day
Global Biotechnology Summit on “Destination India” held on 5th & 6th
February 2016 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi was inaugurated by Minister S&T.
The event showcased India’s Biotechnology strength and capacity and provided an
opportunity to bring together all stakeholders to discuss opportunities,
collaborations and to prepare a joint action plan for achieving the target of
100 billion US dollars for the Biotech sector by 2020.
I.
NEW POLICY INITIATIVES
National
Biotechnology Development Strategy 2015-20
The
National Biotechnology Development Strategy of the Department of Biotechnology
was unveiled by Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Dr.
Harsh Vardhan and Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth
Sciences Shri. Y.S Chowdary in the presence of Secretary, DBT, Dr.
VijayRaghavan and other Key Stake Holders in New Delhi.
The
National Biotechnology Development Strategy-2015-2020 is the direct result of
formal and informal consultations over the past two years with over 300
stakeholders including scientists, educators, policy makers, leaders of
industry and civil society, voluntary and non-government organizations,
regulators and international experts. The consultations offered an opportunity
to discuss and evaluate technological, societal and policy aspirations,
critical success factors as well as barriers that will impede growth and put
them in newer and broader perspective and action plan. A roundtable discussion
was held with key stakeholders to discuss the roadmap for 2020.The key elements
would be implemented in collaboration and partnership with Other Ministries,
Departments, State Governments and international agencies towards achieving:
•
Making
India ready to meet the challenge of achieving US$100bn by 2025
•
Launching
Four Major Missions – Healthcare, Food and Nutrition, Clean Energy and
Education
•
Creating
a Technology Development and Translation network across the country with
global partnership-5 new clusters, 40 Biotech incubators, 150 TTOs, 20
Bioconnect centres
•
Strategic
and focussed investment in building the Human Capital by creating a Life
Sciences and Biotechnology Education Council
As
a follow-up, DBT has launched major mission projects: Biopharma, Farmer Centric
Agriculture, Sickle-cell Management, Marine Biology and Blue Economy, HRD and
capacity building, Mission Innovation and Energy, Space Mission, TB Consortium
(in partnership with ICMR) and Nutrition.
RCB
BILL, 2016
The
Parliament passed The Regional Centre for Biotechnology Bill, 2016. The Bill
establishes Regional Centre for Biotechnology, an institution of education,
training and research, under the auspices of United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in the National Capital Region
and declares it as an institution of national importance. The Gazette of India
notification has been issued.
II.
SWASTH BHARAT
1.
India
is today a leading Vaccine Manufacturing Hub:
The
Vaccine Grand Challenge Programme is under implementation to encourage novel
and innovative vaccine related discoveries, accelerated development of
candidate vaccines. Some major achievements are:
(i).
Rotavirus
vaccine launched by Hon’ble Prime Minster : The first
indigenously developed and manufactured Rotavirus vaccine 'Rotavac.'from an Indian
strain 116E was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 9th March,
2015. The indigenously developed vaccine will boost efforts to combat
infant mortality due to diarrhoea. ROTAVAC developed in collaboration with
Bharat Biotech under the Public-Private Partnership mode is efficacious in
preventing severe rotavirus diarrhoea in low-resource settings in India.
ROTAVAC significantly reduced severe rotavirus diarrhoea by more than half - 56
percent during the first year of life, with protection continuing into the second
year of life. Moreover, the vaccine also showed impact against severe diarrhoea
of any cause. The developed Rotavirus Vaccine at $1 per dose has been cleared
for market license. Potential to prevent >500K childhood diarrheal deaths.
The NTAGI of M/o Health & FW has approved introduction of the vaccine in
EPI in a pilot mode.
(ii).
Malaria
Vaccine:
Vaccine for falciparum malaria is under toxicology assessment (JAIVAC 2) and
vaccine for vivax malaria has completed Phase I trial (JAIVAC1).
(iii).
Dengue
Vaccine:
The recombinant EDIII-based sub-unit dengue vaccine candidate is being
developed in the form of VLPs using the yeast P. pastoris as an
expression host.
2.
Stem
Cell Research
As
per the Joint Statement issued during visit of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra
Modi to Japan in September, 2014, stem cell research was identified as one of
the thrust areas for developing collaborative programmes between both the
countries. The focus of the collaboration is on developing treatments for sickle
cell anemia, β- thalassemia and brain disorders and creating haplobank
relevant to our population in collaboration with CiRA, Kyoto University, Japan.
Accordingly the Department formulated and implemented an SFC proposal
“Accelerating the application of stem cell technology in human disease” as
Indo-Japan collaborative programme with four participating institutions from
India, namely: inStem, Bangalore; NCBS, Bangalore; NIMHANS Bangalore; CSCR, CMC
Vellore; & CiRA, Kyoto University, Japan as international partner.
3.
Herbal
drugs
(i). Development
of Herbal Drug for Dengue Infection
Technology Transfer Agreement
already signed between ICGEB and industry partner – M/s Sun Pharmaceuticals on
May 4, 2016 for taking forward the research lead already developed (most
bioactive extract from a medicinal plant) towards developing
phytopharmaceutical drug. The work has been already initiated jointly by ICGEB,
New Delhi and the industrial partner – M/s Sun Pharmaceuticals.
(ii). Butea for bone health
A project at CDRI, Lucknow is
being developed on regulatory studies of standardized extract of Butea
monosperma for bone health (osteoporosis) to enable IND filing as
phytopharmaceutical drug based on the research leads generated in earlier DBT
funded project.
4. New technology to address anemia
An indigenous
process technology and pilot scale manufacturing unit for iron fortified rice
has been developed through DBT support at IIT, Kharagpur. Pilot scale
manufacturing unit with 100Kg/8h capacity has been commissioned. The rice is
fortified through a process called extrusion in which dough made of rice flour,
vitamin and mineral mix, and water, is passed through an extruder and cut into
grain-like structures that resemble rice grains. This iron fortified rice
premix matches with the normal rice kernel in shape and size, and when mixed
with normal rice in the ratio of 1:100 it provides 50 per cent of recommended
daily allowance (RDA) of iron. Clinical
studies have substantiated that regular feeding for one year increases iron
store and decreases anaemia, in school going children.
III.
AGRICULTURE & ALLIED AREAS
Impacting
Farmers Lives through Science: A New
farmer-centric programme with a major impact on rural livelihood announced on
26th Oct, 2016. The program is for demonstration and scale-up
programmes -addressing water, soil, seed and marketing issues of local farmers
with validated technologies. It is expected to create strong Scientists-Farmers
Interaction Platform. Communication set up through radio and TV and
connectivity through social media; Fellowships: thematic fellowship in the zone
at science laboratories; Mahila Special solution-driven thematic fellowships to
women farmers (Mahila Kisan Biotech Fellowship).
The call for proposals for
this programme was issued and applications are being reviewed for support.
Decoding
the Wheat Genome: A strong partnership in Decoding
the Wheat Genome has been built. 15 countries joined hands to complete this
huge task of decoding 17,000 million bases. Indian Scientists participated in
Decoding Chromosome 2A.
Rice
variety Samba Mahsuri: With the support of
Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Scientists atCentre for Cellular and
Molecular Biology (CCMB) and Directorate of Rice Research (DRR) have jointly developed
bacterial blight resistant Rice variety “Samba Mahsuri’ through Marker
Assisted Selection and Backcross Breeding. The variety has so far spread to an
area of 90,000 ha in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra
Pradesh.
Multi-locational field trials
of transgenic silkworm resistant to viral disease- The transgenic silkworm
resistant BmNPV infection has been developed and multi-locational field trials
have been initiated after the approval of RCGM. The hybrids once introduced at
commercial level will be a boon to the Seri culturists in uplifting their
socio-economic status.
New programme for
brucella-free villages- Launch of “Brucella Free Villages” was announced
for implementation on pilot scale in 50 villages covering 10 states.
Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease and causes economic losses of about Rs.
28000.00 Crores per year. Participants from 26 countries deliberated on
brucellosis challenges in The International Conference was organized by DBT in
collaboration with ICAR on Nov 17-19th. Three new Brucella diagnostic
kits launched.
IV. CLEAN INDIA MISSION
(i).
Commercialization of technology for clean energy from agricultural
waste- The First indigenous technology has been developed for commercial
production of Ethanol from lignocellulosic waste at DBT – ICT Centre, Mumbai,
a demo/pilot plant with a capacity of 10 tonnes biomass per day to
produce 3000 L ethanol/day on a continuous basis has been set up at
IGL, Kashipur. The Technology has now been transferred for commercialization to
2 OMC’s -Bharat Petroleum Cooperation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Cooperation
Ltd. Each company will set up a 400 tonne plant to produce 100L tonnes of
ethanol per day by 2018. This is expected to yield 3 crores litres of ethanol
per year to meet national demands.
(ii).
Biotech Options for River Cleaning -
Biotechnology based research including
demonstration project(s) on river cleaning has been taken up by DBT. Some
innovative major projects on improvement of conventional wastewater treatment
systems and development of new and innovative bioremediation technologies at
the source point of industrial pollution are expected to be initiated by the
Department.
(iii).
Sanitation - A “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge -India” for developing
proof of concept research in waste management was supported along with Gates
Foundation and 100 bio-toilets are being installed for technology demonstration
in North East India.
(iv).
Biotech for cleaning of Barapullah
drain- In pursuance of the POC
between DBT and the Directorate General for Enterprise & Innovation, M/O
Economic Affairs and Innovation, the Netherlands signed in November, 2011 and
overall S&T agreement. Department and Netherlands organization for
Scientific Research (NWO) an organization of Ministry of Education, Culture and
Science, Netherlands and STW (Technology foundation) expressed interest in
collaborating in the area of Water for Health. Under the call the
proposal “Local Treatment of Urban Sewage Streams for Healthy Reuse (LOTUS)”
was mutually agreed for funding. The project was officially launched at the Barapullah
drain site on 8th September 2016 by the Dutch Ambassador and the
Secretary, DBT. The project aims to demonstrate a novel holistic (waste-) water
management approach, that will produce clean water that can be reused for
various proposes (e.g. industry, agriculture, construction etc.), while
simultaneously recovering nutrients and energy from the urban waste water, thus
converting drain into profitable mines. Special attention will be paid to
pathogen removal and removing conventional and emerging pollutants (which are
only partly retained in the existing WWTPs). The DDA has agreed to provide experimental testing
sites along the Barapullah drain where testing labs and the
demonstration pilot plant will be established. The project will develop
an innovative pilot scale plant, suitable to cope with Indian conditions in a
location specific manner. The final design of the pilot plant will be scalable
and modular, to fit into the highly populated urban terrain.
V.
HUMAN RESOURCE AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT
(i).
Teaching & training in biotech
o
Star College Program - 92 colleges
supported and 10 colleges accorded star status
o
>1600 personnel trained under UG, PG
training courses
o
>2000 candidates provided training
in biotech industries under BITP
(ii).
The
Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship was conceived with the idea of
encouraging Indian scientists working outside the country (Indian Nationals),
and who would like to come back home and pursue their research interests in
life sciences and biotechnology and other related areas. During the last six
years 247 overseas scientists were selected and 173 have already returned and
joined various research institutes/ universities 27 scientists are likely to
join in next six months. 50 scientists are selected every year. This has enriched
the scientific pool of the country.
(iii).
Skill
Development in NER:
·
Twinning Programme: The goal of this programme is to
strengthen R&D activity in the North East India through joint
collaborations. Financial
assistance is provided to competitive R&D projects from scientists in the
North Eastern States in collaboration with scientists from national
institutions from other parts of the country.
The programme has supported
nearly 400 R&D projects, leading to more than 200 papers published in peer
reviewed journals, and more than 450 young scientists of NER trained in
advanced biotechnology. Every year approximately 70-80 projects under this
flagship programme are being supported to NER.
·
Setting up of “DBT-NER Centre for Advanced Animal Diagnostics and
Services on Animal Health and Diseases (ADSAHD)” involving stake holders from
all NER States including national laboratories from Bhopal, Bangalore and
Hissar.
·
Establishment of
Unit of Excellence in Biotechnology (U-Excel) ‑ with a view to recognize promising mid-career
scientists in NER, this has been initiated to enable them to pursue their
innovative research in frontier areas of biotechnology. So far, 12 units of
excellence have been established during the year.
·
Overseas
Associateship for NER Scientists ‑
This scheme aims to promote capacity building in cutting edge areas of
biotechnology and life sciences. As of now more than 110 scientists have availed this associate ship.
VI. INNOVATION AND
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Under
the DBT, for a well-defined Innovation Ecosystem for product development - a
Public Sector undertaking, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council
(BIRAC) has been set-up, supporting nearly 300 companies and 100 young
entrepreneurs for innovation, research and product development. Further, the
Biotechnology Translational research and industry academia partnership has
promoted through 3 Biotech clusters, 8 Biotech Parks and 13 Bioincubators.
Also, 25 Centers of Excellences have been created as a flexible model of
long-term support for highly innovative, basic and translational research to
create high quality state-of-the-art facilities for R&D. In addition over
60 programme support is being implemented to various outstanding research
activities across the country.
Biotechnology
Industry Research Assistance Council
•
The
biotech startup scenario in India was transformed by one of BIRAC’s flagship
scheme called BIG (Biotechnology Ignition Grant). BIG has supported 195
entrepreneurial ideas. 22 new startups were created (in 18 months) and the total
number of employment generated is 231.
•
Providing
access to high end infrastructural requirement to the biotech community in
India. BIRAC through its bioincubation scheme (Bionest) has supported 15
bioincubation centres across the nation and has created 175,000sq.ft of
incubation space. Within these incubators, around 199 biotech startups are
being provided support. In each of the bioincubator, BIRAC has supported a
common pool of high end instrumentation that is being used by incubate and
other SMEs for R&D.
•
50
New Products, 30 early stage technologies and 125 IP generated.
•
350
Start-Ups, SME, and Entrepreneurs Supported.
•
BIRAC
Ace Fund – An Equity Fund for Accelerating Entrepreneurs was announced by
Hon’ble Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences during BIRAC
Foundation Function.
VII. INTERNATIONAL
COOPERATION
INDO-UK SCIENCE COOPERATION
Strategic S&T partnership
with UK: During the visit of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to India for
India-U.K Tech Summit held at New Delhi from November 7th-9th,
2016; A Joint Statement was issued (India-UK Strategic Partnership looking
forward to a renewed engagement: Vision for the decade ahead). The Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom and India commended ongoing collaboration in
biotechnology and made the following announcement for the Department of
Biotechnology:
a)
Joint Strategic Group on
Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) with joint investment of up to £13 million(with
all research councils, UK and M/o S &T (DBT and DST), ICMR, ICAR, MoEF,
PHFI from India led by DBT.
b)
Joint research programme
for innovative biotechnologies for cleaning and processing industrial waste
with joint investment of £16 million.
c)
Joint projects to address
post-harvest losses benefiting farmers for £10 million
(this was approved and the projects were announced)
(this was approved and the projects were announced)
d)
The two sides announced
the launch of the second phase of joint research in women’s and children’s
health in low-income settingsfor £12.6million.
e)
The two sides looked
forward to engaging on India’s efforts to develop a Bio-bank that will draw on
UK Bio-Bank’s scientific expertise.
MISSION
INNOVATION
India
is a Partner country for the 'Mission Innovation' (MI) which is an effort of 23
participating countries towards accelerating global clean energy innovation. This
was launched on 30th November, 2015 during COP-21 in the presence of
Hon’ble Prime Minister. The Department of Biotechnology is the nodal agency for
India. A delegation led by Union Minister for Science & Technology and
Earth Sciences Dr. Harsh Vardhan participated in the First Ministerial Meeting in
San Francisco in June, 2016. The country’s R&D investment doubling plan was
presented. Seven Innovation Challenges were announced during the COP-22 in
Marrakech in November, 2016. India is the land for the Smart Grid Challenge.
l
Seven Innovation Challenges
Ø
Smart Grids: To enable future smart grids that are powered
by affordable, reliable, decentralised renewable electricity systems.
Ø
Off-Grid Access to Electricity: To develop systems that enable off grid
households and communities to access affordable and reliable renewable
electricity.
Ø
Carbon Capture: To enable near-zero CO2 emissions
from power plants and carbon intensive industries.
Ø
Sustainable Biofuels: To develop ways to produce, at scale, widely
affordable, advanced biofuels for transportation and industrial applications.
Ø
Converting Sunlight to create
storable solar fuels: To
discover affordable ways to convert sunlight into storable solar fuels.
Ø
Clean Energy Materials:
To accelerate the exploration, discovery, and use of new high-performance,
low-cost clean energy materials.
Ø
Affordable Heating and Cooling of
Buildings: To make low-carbon heating and cooling
affordable for everyone
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