The Hindu Business Line : Banking on technology

LAST week, a quartet of interesting developments pointed to the possibility of a developmental shift in favour of a technology-driven thrust to Kerala's industrialisation. The first came in the form of a statement from Chief Minister Oommen Chandy while inaugurating a workshop for journalists on the role of the media in promoting new research in biotechnology.

The Chief Minister stressed the need for Kerala to adopt a technology-supported growth pattern for the advancement of the State's polity and society. He added that the old subsidy-centric, government-aided approach to development had proved to be a hurdle for the State. The Chief Minister went as far as saying that it was time to think of phasing out all subsidies, except for food.

At the same workshop, the State's Minister for Law and Revenue K.M. Mani said that the government was working on a series of policy initiatives designed to transform the State into a global research destination for biotechnology.

The government, he announced, would soon come out with an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy as well as set up a Centre for IPR Management and Information, which will help in filing patents and track research projects.

Specifically, the Kerala Government aimed to promote - through establishing a biotechnology mission and a gene-and-tissue bank - biotechnology research for application in the medical, agricultural, marine and industrial sectors. The State government would fund technology-centred research projects, the Minister added.

The third technology-oriented event was the visit of Prime Minister of Fiji Laisenai Qarase, who toured the public sector coir factory Foam Mattings (India) Ltd in Alappuzha, as part of getting familiarised with Kerala's potential in transfer of technological know-how.

The Prime Minister said that he looked forward to importing agricultural technology and expertise from India, particularly Kerala, to develop value-added products from coconut and coir.

Coconuts play an important role in Fiji's economy. Of its population of 850,000, the livelihoods of 60,000 families depend on coconut. About 24 per cent of the area in the country was under coconut cultivation.

The Prime Minister saw great potential for technical cooperation and support from Kerala and the Coconut Development Board for improving productivity, product diversification and farm-level processing.

Finally, the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) has invited entrepreneurs to set up integrated textile parks in the State. This call is in line with the Union Government's scheme of creating 25 textile parks of international standards in the country.

The idea is to provide the industry with world-class infrastructure and meet international environmental and social standards. Kerala's parks will come up at Kanjikode in Palakkad and Seethangoli in Kasaragod.

The common link in these initiatives and declarations is the potential role of technology - especially the newer disciplines such as biotechnology and nanotechnology - to help lift Kerala into a new industrial trajectory. Health and agriculture seem to be the two sectors that would benefit most from the application of biotechnology.

That India's pharmaceutical industry is powerful enough to take on - and beat - the best in the West has just been reiterated by Cipla, the country's third largest pharma firm.

Cipla has announced that it would start making a generic version of Tamiflu, the anti-influenza drug that is in critically short supply in the face of a possible pandemic of avian flu. Tamiflu is made by the multinational Roche, which has declined to license the generic version. Cipla scientists claim to have finished reverse engineering the drug.

This is an example that scientists, biotechnologists and entrepreneurs in Kerala ought to follow - or at least look to for inspiration. Already, the State Government is planning legislation for protection of traditional knowledge systems in Kerala.

That area alone offers sufficient scope for a biotechnology-centred acceleration of the State's key strengths in alternative medicine and healthcare. Stretched to other technology-dependent sectors, this approach should help Kerala forge ahead industrially.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com

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