The Hindu Business Line : Bridging science & industry at biotech meet

Dr Bala S. Manian, Chairman, International Knowledge Millennium Conference-2004 and founder of Reametrix Inc, addressing the media along with Ms Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, CEO, ICICI Knowledge Park, in Hyderabad on Monday. — A. Roy Chowdhury

Hyderabad , Oct. 25

ICICI Knowledge Park (ICICI KP) is organising a three-day International Knowledge Millennium Conference, IKMC 2004, on `Biotechnology in India: Building Bridge between Science & Industry' from October 31 here, its Chief Executive Officer, Ms Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, announced.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, she said the conference aims at linking innovation and science in biotechnology with its implementation in real world applications. The conference has been planned as a two-and-a-half day event where 15 speakers of repute from the US and 16 from India would deliver lectures during the sessions on technology transfer and entrepreneurship, industrial biotechnology, cell processing technology and metabolic engineering of medicinal plants.

Briefing on the conference, the IKMC2004 Chairman, Dr Bala S. Manian, who is also the Founder of Reametrix Inc, said over three hundred delegates including entrepreneurs, senior scientists, top executives, NRIs, policymakers and funding agencies were expected to participate.

The keynote speaker at the conference is Mr G. Steven Burrill, Founder of the US-based Burrill & Company.

The Director General of CSIR, Dr R.A. Mashelkar, would give the inaugural address, while the Secretary of the Union Department of Biotechnology, Prof M.K. Bhan, and the Secretary of Union Department of Science and Technology, Prof V.S. Ramamurthy, would deliver special addresses.

ICICI Bank and the Andhra Pradesh Government are the principal sponsors of the event. Other sponsors include CSIR, ICICI Venture, Biocon, Toucan Capital, Nicholas Piramal, Burrill & Company, Invitrogen Corporation, Millipore, Avesthagen, APIDC Venture Capital and Bharat Biotech.

According to Ms Chattopadhyay, ICICI Knowledge Park has planned a series of International Knowledge Millennium Conferences on globally relevant scientific topics and IKMC2004 is the second conference in this series. The registration and programme details of the conference were made available on www.ikmc2004.com, she said.