The Hindu Business Line : Biotech sector turnover tops Rs 12,000 cr in 2009

The Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr B.S. Yedyurappa, with (from right) Mr Katta Subramanya Naidu, Karnataka Minister for IT and Biotechnology, Mr Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences; Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson, Karnataka Vision Group on Biotechnology and CMD, Biocon; and Mr Miguel Angel Ramirez Ramos, Ambassador, Republic of Cuba, at the inauguration of the Bangalore Bio-2009 in Bangalore on Thursday.

Our Bureau

Bangalore, June 18 The global meltdown and the foreign exchange rate have impacted Indian biotechnology.

The industry growth rate slipped to 18 per cent in 2008-09, compared with 30-34 per cent in the previous years.

The sector’s overall turnover in 2008-09 was Rs 12,137 crore, said Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD of Biocon, and head of the Karnataka think-tank, the Vision Group on Biotechnology, citing the annual Biospectrum survey of industry. The revenue was Rs 10,273 crore in 2007-08.

With 60 per cent of the income coming from exports, the turnover in dollar terms was static year-on-year at $2.5 billion. The exchange rate last year was Rs 47/dollar compared with Rs 40 in 2007-08.

The Bangalore cluster, with 187 or nearly half of the 370 biotech industries, topped among clusters, with a turnover of Rs 2,500 crore. The Mumbai-Pune cluster, she said, was catching up with the highest growth rate among all clusters.

She said, “India’s promise is to focus on synergies and progress by partnering in knowledge. India can play a key role in addressing the global challenges of food and health insecurities. To achieve this goal, we need to innovate the very process of biotech innovation.”

Bio-pharma contributed Rs 7,883 crore; bio-agri nearly Rs 1,500 crore, bio-industrial segment Rs 478 crore and bio-informatics grew 15 per cent to touch Rs 220 crore.

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