We are creating some awesome events for you. Kindly bear with us.

Inter-ministerial MoU inked to enhance biotech industry in India

To promote biotechnology research and development in agriculture, the country’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) have inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The MoU will facilitate multi-disciplinary research and development activities and nurture innovations in biotechnology, agriculture, and education.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has been coordinating, guiding, and managing research and education in agriculture in the country.

The Department of Biotechnology Secretary said that both the organisations have initiated major facilities and technology platforms, which are accessible to national systems. She added that a joint working group will be constituted to take the partnership forward.

The collaboration will also promote agri-innovations and start-ups through India’s BIRAC mechanism.

The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council or BIRAC is a not-for-profit Public Sector Enterprise, established under the DBT as an interface agency. The BIRAC works to strengthen and empower emerging biotechnology enterprises to address nationally relevant product development needs.

According to the BIRAC website, the fundamental mandate for the BIRAC is to nurture and grow the growing biotechnology industry in India. The industry’s chief challenges are the intense capital and high-end infrastructure required from the start-up stage.

The biotech start-up scenario in India was transformed by one of BIRAC’s flagship scheme, the Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG). BIG has supported 140 entrepreneurial ideas over 5 calls at the pre-proof-of-concept stage.

Furthermore, through its various funding projects, the BIRAC has created 30 affordable and 27 early-stage technologies. These products and technologies are from biopharma, industrial biotech, medical devices and agribiotechnology. The Rotavac (Rotavirus vaccine) to immunise children against rotaviral diseases and the Maxio to help in tumour ablation are some of the technologies developed through the BIRAC funding.

Through the MoU, the two organisations will collaborate with one another in mutually agreed-upon research programmes in the areas of agricultural biotechnology. Together, they will fund projects and discuss policy issues, regulatory aspects, and other specified areas of national interest.

In a press release, the DBT said that the specific objectives are to collaboratively plan and implement major national programmes through joint funding and the sharing of resources.

Under the MoU, the agencies will form a think tank of experts to formulate policies for the development of India’s biotech industry.

The partnership will establish platforms and centres for services related to genomics, genotyping, data banking, agriculture bioinformatics, GM food detection, and the validity of technologies such as vaccines. Other areas include the diagnostics of veterinary and fisheries use and molecular markers in crop and animal breeding.

The DBT and the ICAR will also create and introduce courses and training programmes in the areas of biosafety, biodiversity conservation, germplasm exchange, genomic selection, and breeding.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Send this to a friend