Mr. Peter Cook, British Deputy High Commissioner to Gujarat; Shri Pankaj Kumar, Chief Secretary; Senior Secretaries; Shri Vijay Nehra, Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology; officials from nationally and globally recognized institutes; and officials from the biotechnology sector. According to Bhupendra Patel, “Being a policy driven and business-friendly state, Gujarat has remained at the industry forefront in the country. New forms of entrepreneurship have emerged with the adoption of science and technology in the state.”
Owing to the upward trend of the global biotechnology industry with continuous growth in recent times, the Gujarat state government unveiled its new Biotechnology Policy to develop the allied sectors in the state. The CM detailed the major applications of biotechnology in various fields. He said, “Biotechnology has made significant contributions in solving new-age problems, especially in the field of health and agriculture. The science-driven industry has been instrumental in understanding and fighting the global COVID-19 pandemic. It was due to biotechnology that we got effective rapid antigen tests, RT-PCR tests, vaccines, etc”.
According to him, the goal of the new Biotechnology Policy is to make Gujarat dominant in the biotechnology sector and to increase benefits. The Chief Minister explained about the new policy. He said, “Various stakeholders such as educational institutes, research institutes, start-ups and entrepreneurs were consulted for this policy to attract more investments in the field of biotechnology. Their valuable suggestions were considered in Biotechnology Policy 2022-27.” He added that the Biotechnology Policy was developed with national policies and plans in mind.
The Chief Minister listed the benefits of the policy. He said, “Frontier technologies of the industry have been covered in this policy. Besides, the list of biotechnology products and services have been extended. This policy will encourage the fields of biotechnology research ranging from bioplastics to gene splicing and stem cell therapy in the state.” Additionally, the new policy will bolster the ecosystem by funding unique initiatives like preclinical testing, private sector genome sequencing, plug-and-play facilities, private sector BSL-3 lab-vaccine making, and production, testing, and certification laboratories.
