B'lore Bio '04: Creating new frontiers
By siliconindia staff writer   |   Friday, 09 July 2004, 19:30 IST
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BANGALORE: Biotechnology is already making a significant impact on our everyday lives. This is only the beginning. The applications of Biotechnology are foreseen widely in medicine & healthcare, agriculture to food production & processing and preservation of environment & biodiversity in this century. Against this background, Bangalore Bio 2004 (July 11– 13) will be taking place under the theme ‘Technology for Life’. Aptly, the conference theme would be “Biotechnology for a Billion People”. On a total display area of 5000 square meters and a total of about 100 exhibitors from 15 countries the event will present a complete spectrum of biotech products and applications. A total number of 6,083 Biotech companies worldwide are engaged in one or more activities such as biotech equipment, biotech consumables, drug discovery and Bio-Informatics in various fields like health, agriculture, food and environment, etc. Investment in the Indian biotech industry is currently estimated at about $2 billion and is expected to reach about $10 billion by the end of this decade, largely due to growing multinational collaborations and indigenous R&D efforts. According to M.K. Shankaralinge Gowda, IAS, Secretary, Dept. IT, BT and Science & Technology, Govt. of Karnataka, “this year’s show will provide a unique insight into the way the biotechnology market is developing globally and in India. More importantly, this event will also look at ways of taking the benefits of biotech research to the farming community of the developing world. Apart from the obvious benefits accruing to farmers from Agri-biotechnology, utilization of land remaining fallow on account of drought, salinity and other problems can be very effectively done by proper backward integration of the PHARMA sector to FARMER community. The herbal extract industry is presently estimated to be a 20 billion USD market and Karnataka farmer can benefit enormously from this. Bangalore Bio is thus an absolute “must” for business professionals, scientists, students and decision-makers in the developing nations. Also our conservative targets for sale of trade-show space and the number of registrations for the conference have been exceeded by a wide margin”. The Vision Group on Biotechnology, the organizers of Bangalore Bio, are overwhelmed by the number of exhibitor & conference registrations. Says Padma Bhushan Prof. G.Padmanaban, Distinguished Biotechnologist and member of Vision Group, “I have seen the contents of the final conference schedule and it looks absolutely state of the art and highly relevant to the chosen theme. The conference topics cover not only the science of biotechnology, but also their applications for the good of mankind. A wide range starting from Agri-biotech to the most recent developments in healthcare biotechnology and commercial issues like IPR is covered”. Another positive factor is the increase in the number of foreign delegates. Germany is the largest western business group to visit this year. They are looking at a wide range of possible business cooperation with Karnataka & India. An M.O.U. between Karnataka Biotechnology Development Council (KBDC), International Technology Cooperation Network (ITCN) of German Government and Frankfurt Innovation Centre for Biotechnology (FIZ) is likely to be signed during the special Indo-German business Forum meeting scheduled on 12th July. Among the other participating countries, a large Thailand delegation will also be in the event and scout for joint venture and collorabation for business and technology. With over 70 Biotechnology education institutes and 100 biotech companies in Karnataka, the city of Bangalore has become a hub for scores of aspiring students from across the country. All of these factors reaffirm Bangalore’s stature to be the Biotechnology destination of Asia-Pacific region. Aware of these growing opportunities, the government of Karnataka has actively begun working on new policy initiatives and infrastructural support to propel growth of this sunrise industry. Bangalore Bio 2004 has dedicated a special event to the student community called ‘Bio Careers’ where aspiring scientists and engineers can gain accelerated learning experiences by way of specialized counseling. The organizers have partnered with HR Consultants, Ma Foi and KBDC for this purpose. For the general public and the visitors participating, a special event is designed for them to gain access to biotech sector leaders. This will consist of open seminars titled ‘Public Lecture Series’ which will be addressed by thought-leaders on people-centric issues such as employment opportunities, Public Awareness on Biotechnology, applications of IT in Biotechnology and Possibilities of improving the life of common man using biotechnology. This year’s Bangalore Bio conferences will be a mine of information and will feature sessions handled by International Biotechnology experts on various topics including R & D Outsourcing, Vaccines & Therapeutics, Diagnostics, Industrial & Environmental Biotechnology, Agri-food Biotechnology, Clinical Research, Intellectual Property Rights, Biologics Manufacturing, IT Enabled Bio Services and Bio Invest. The CEO Conclave will witness a high-power meeting point of various professionals culminating in a Vision Talk by the entrepreneur extraordinaire, Dr. Bala S.Manian. On 12th July at 7-00 pm the gala awards nite will take place. This would begin with the Hon`ble Chief Minister of Karnataka felicitating the three Padma Awardees from the scientific community of Karnataka on their being conferred such a distinction. They are Prof.G.Padmanaban - Padma Bhushan, Prof.M.Vijayan – Padma Shree and Dr.V.Prakash – Padma Shree. This would be followed by awards to the best exhibitors from different categories. The evening also includes some scintillating entertainment and dinner. The venue entrance is from Vasanthnagar. For the convenience of business visitors the gates would be open from 10.00am and will be exclusively for conducting business upto 2.30 pm. The general public can visit the event from 2.30 pm onwards. A nominal entrance fee of 20/- will be collected from the general public and 10/- from students.

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