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Study points to strong biotech growth in India
(Monday, June 9, 2003 -- CropChoice news) -- The Indian bio-technology sector, currently at a nascent stage with a mere one per cent share of the global biotech market, is poised for an exponential growth over the next five years with an expected global market share of 10 per cent, according to a study by CII and Rabo India, the Indian subsidiary of Rabobank, Netherland.
The consumption for biotech products in India is estimated to grow ten fold to 1.5 billion US dollars by 2007 and 4.5 billion US dollars by 2010, the study said.
The market for the modern bio-technology products and services in India was estimated to be about 150 million US dollars for 2002, it said adding that about 40 per cent or 60 million US dollars were estimated to be the export revenues.
The key markets for the Indian biotech sector included industrial biotech products like enzymes, vaccines, diagnostics like immunology kits, veterinary products, agri-biotech products like genetically modified seed among others.
The country's industry, witnessing a beginning, mainly comprised start-up and large established companies in pharmaceuticals, agriculture and IT, the study said, adding that market leaders in the field were Shantha Biotechnics, Biocon, Wockhardt, Dr Reddy?s Lab, Aventis Pharma, Zydus Cadila and Reliance Life Sciences among others.
India has developed adequate infrastructure with low cost technology, network of research labs and trained manpower the prime requirements for growth of the sector, according to the study.
The advantages included low operational cost and technology, skilled human resources, network of research labs, abundance of raw materials like plants, animal and human genetic diversity.
Moreover, to provide increased thrust in the sector, the government has set up the Department of Bio-technology, which had established 200 government labs, private research institutions with state-of-the-art equipment.
The budgetary allocation for the sector was also hiked to 500 million US dollars in 2002-03 as compared to 300 million US dollars in 1997-98.
The state governments had also recently evinced stress in the sector with the Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka governments taking "proactive steps" in building biotechnology parks, incubators and Centres for Bio-technology Excellence after formulating a biotech policy.
The potentiality of the sector was also vindicated by the astounding growth of the sector in the international countries.
The study said the US, with around 1,457 biotech companies in 2001, had seen a 20 per cent growth over the figure at 1992.
The revenues also showed a quantum jump to 28 billion US dollars in 2001 as compared to eight billion US dollars in 1992.
The country employed one lakh in the biotech sector in 2001 as against 79,000 in 1992.
Source: http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=13166373&vsv=157 | |
