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India has huge advantages in the Bio technology sector.
The trained human man power and the enormous resources
put India as a fast moving Bio technology hub in the
world.
advances
in information technology acted as a catalyst for the
growth of Biotechnology in India.
With the technology paved the way for
superspecialty discipline, called bioinformatics, the
scope of growth has been substantially improved.
Bioinformatics and applied science play a vital
importance in the study of new
biology, which is widely used for medical
technology, immune development system and drug research.
India’s inherent talent in the field of science
and technology has given an edge here. The genomic
revolution has underscored the central role of
bioinformatics in understanding the very basics of life
processes. India is now emerging as a front line
destination for Biotechnology business.
With
more than 300 large and medium companies operating
currently, the Indian biotechnology sector is generating
revenues of about US$ 3 billion which is expected to
reach US$ 6 billion by 2010. The Bio technology sector
has been growing at between 35 per cent and 40 per cent
per annum for the last three years. The period 2006-2015
has been projected as the “decade of Asia” in the
field of biotechnology. Biotechnology sector,
encompasses many fields from biopharma to agri-bio and
biofuels. Agriculture and Pharmaceutical sector has been
deeply linked to the Bio technology. In the
pharmaceutical field, several Indian companies have
started inventing and producing biotechnology-based
drugs for diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
In the case of Agriculture, with a focus on
transgenic rice, corn, chickpea, and several other food
crops, most notably in the area of genetically modified
crops such as Bt cotton as well as bio-fuels, the
prospects for growth in business has been significant.
India is already building a global leadership profile in
Bt cotton where it has the largest area under
cultivation, over six million hectares. In 2006, India
also ranked first in terms of growth in the transgenic
crops sector where it registered over 200 per cent
compared to the global average of 13 per cent.
The
Boitech companies are operational mainly in pharma
field. There are several investments have been coming in
this segment. In the Biotechnology sector, nearly 40 per
cent operate in the biopharma sector, followed by
bioservices (21 per cent), bioagriculture (19 per cent),
bioinformatics (14 per cent) and bioindustrials (5 per
cent).
The biopharma segment, accounting for over
two-thirds of the industry, reported sales of US$ 1.46
billion, representing a growth of 27 per cent. The
bioservices sector registered 53 per cent growth, the
bioagriculture sector grew by 55 per cent, and the
bioinformatics and bioindustrial sectors by 21 per cent
and 5 per cent respectively. Home-grown companies led
the biotech revenue sweepstakes and for the first time
in the past five years, the top five companies are all
of Indian origin.
In 2005-06, the industry grew by 37.42 percent to
record US$ 1.45 billion in revenues. The industry
recorded 36.5 percent growth to cross the US$ 1 billion
in 2004-05. The BioPharma sector alone crossed the US$ 1
billion-mark, propelled by exports at US$ 571.7 million.
Investments in the Indian biotechnology sector crossed
US$ 580 million in 2006-2007 with Bangalore alone
witnessing more than US$ 243.9 million outlay from
companies like Jubilant, AstraZeneca, GE Healthcare and
Biocon. The biotechnology companies expenditure on
research and development (R&D) amounted to an
average 3 per cent of sales.
Incentives
for investments in the Indian biotechnology industry
• 100 per cent foreign equity investment allowed in
manufacturing of all drugs except recombinant DNA
products and cell targeted therapies.
• DBT provides a single window processing mechanism
for all mega biotechnology projects involving Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI) of US$ 22 million or more under
the Foreign Investment Implementation Authority (FIIA)
with its Fast Track Committee (FTC).
• Depreciation allowance on plant and machinery.
• Customs duty exemption on goods imported in certain
cases.
• 150 per cent weighted tax deduction on R&D
expenditure.
• 3 year excise duty waiver on patented
products.
• 100 per cent rebate on own R&D
expenditure.
• 125 per cent rebate if research is contracted to
public funded R&D institutions.
• Customs duty on import of reference standards has
been reduced from 25 per cent to 5 per cent.
• Joint R&D projects are provided with special
fiscal benefits.
• Recently announced tariff and non-tariff measures by
the Government are set to further stimulate market
development in the biotechnology.
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