The growth and vitality of the biotechnology industry around globe depend on the availability of well-trained scientists with expertise in such areas as microbiology, molecular genetics, biochemistry, bioprocess engineering, plant and animal cell culture technologies, metabolic engineering, biomaterials, macromolecular structure analysis, hybridoma technology, tissue engineering, and separation technologies. The biotechnology sector tend to be highly dynamic, research and investment intensive. In the past 10-12 years, this industry has experienced massive R & D expansion and technological development, which also extend to both core processes within R & D and the procurement processes.

There is also growing demand for new technologies in life sciences and healthcare, including public health. The recent decoding of the human genome is a major milestone in the history of medical sciences. More than three billion letters that form the genetic blueprint of human life are now mapped, allowing for the identification in the future of thousands of genes involved in disease-developing processes. This knowledge is expected to help diagnose potential risks for certain diseases much earlier and to uncover new ways to prevent and treat them. India has made rapid strides over the years. In addition, there is cross interaction across a number of disciplines, including biochemistry, bioengineering, cell biology, chemical engineering, genetics, microbiology, and pharmacology.

Biotechnology also extends its wings to several other sectors, including vaccines for some of the deadly diseases, cloning, and gene therapy, growing stem cell technologies, nanotechnology, and genetically modified crops. The unprecedented growth in science and techno0lgy has provided significant openings for India, which should invest heavily to build Intellectual Property (IP)-based technologies. This provides India with an opportunity to use its trained work force effectively to develop and take advantage of the IP model. The trained graduates with appropriate skills in these fields will also have an opportunity to experience the industrial environment and the ability to work successfully on research problems requiring interdisciplinary approaches. The economic impact and the number of technologies that have come from Biotechnology are unprecedented in the recent history of science.

The Indian industry has achieved global recognition as a "low cost producer of quality bulk drugs and formulations". Indian companies are also producing vaccines. Many have also taken advantage of being able to transfer technologies and bring products to the market place.
Leading Indian companies have established marketing and manufacturing activities in over 60 countries including the US and Western Europe. Investment in R & D by industry as a whole in India has been low, only around 0.6% of the turnover. However, the scenario is now changing as the newly evolving technology savvy workforce is ready to compete in the global market. Today the industry is manufacturing practically the entire range of the therapeutic products. It is capable of producing raw materials for the manufacture of a wide range of bulk drugs from the basic stage and a range of pharma machinery and equipment.

The Institute believes that there are tremendous opportunities for India to grow this industry and the only it can achieve a leadership position in this sector is via the IP-route and technology transfer opportunities. It is important for India to assume a leadership role through heavy public investments for training the next generation scientists with the right skills. The Institute believes that there needs to be strategic approach for R & D investment so that there will be a better return for investment. In general, a high degree of prioritization is critical for growing this sector in India.