India’s bio-economy soars to $100 bn, aim $150 bn by 2025: Jitendra Singh

livemint.com:

New Delhi: Union minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday said India’s bioeconomy jumped from $8 billion in 2014 to $100 billion and the country now targets $150 billion by 2025, Addressing a discussion meeting in New Delhi focused on fostering the Biomanufacturing Initiative of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the minister said “India’s bioeconomy was just about $8 billion in 2014 and now under Prime Minister Narendra Modi we have at least awakened to the merits of biotechnology and bioeconomy. It has grown up to $100 billion, now we are targeting $150 billion by 2025.

This is going to be the ‘future value addition’ to India’s economy in the years to come...We rank 12th in the world, 3rd in the Asia Pacific as far as bioeconomy is concerned and rank one in vaccine production." Singh said biotechnology has the potential to become an instrument of global trade. “India has a huge wealth of bioresources, an unsaturated resource waiting to be harnessed and an advantage in biotechnology especially due to the vast biodiversity and the unique bioresources in the Himalayas.

Then there is the 7,500 kms long coastline and last year we launched the Samudrayaan which is going to dig the biodiversity beneath the seas," he said. The minister said biotechnology has emerged as a trending career option among the youth.

In a recent survey of Class 12 students in Delhi it was found that biotechnology was ranked as the preferred stream at no.4/5 whereas earlier it didn’t figure anywhere as a career option, he said. “So this is something not widely known, and that’s also the reason it took us so much of time to attract young minds into it," said Jitendra Singh.