Pune: Biotechnology will dominate the global economy in the near future, with India being at the forefront firmly grounded in its industry of $300 billion attained over the next five to seven years, said Jitendra Singh, minister of state (independent charge) of the Union ministry of science and technology.Singh was speaking on Friday at the inauguration of SYMRESEARCH 2.0, a conference on bioengineering for global health hosted by the Symbiosis International University (SIU). He said economists worldwide agree that the next industrial revolution will be bio-driven.Biotechnology in India began as a $10 billion industry in 2014 and stands at $130 billion at present, he said, adding: “We are confident it will reach $300 billion over the next five to seven years.”In the 1990s, advancements in world economy were fuelled by information technology, he said. “There will now be a paradigm shift moving from traditional manufacturing to recycling processes, bio-driven technologies and genetic advancements. The transformation won’t be limited to life sciences, but will encompass areas such as agriculture and plant sciences,” he added.The conference on Friday was also attended by former director general of CSIR RA Mashelkar, founder and president of Symbiosis and chancellor of Symbiosis International University (SIU) (deemed university) SB Mujumdar, SIU faculty of medical and health sciences provost Dr Rajiv Yeravdekar, among others. The programme is on till Saturday at the Lavale campus of Symbiosis.Meanwhile, Singh said, “The Union govt is proud to be one of the first to introduce the bio-e-tree policy — a comprehensive approach to leveraging biotechnology for the environment, economy and employment. We’ve already seen significant success stories emerging from the initiative.”Singh also launched a book, ‘More from Less for More,’ written by Mashelkar and Sushil Borde.
