‘Policy, regulatory hurdles in energy sector must be removed’

Anil Sardana, Managing Director, Tata Power:

Energy is the indispensable force that drives all economic activity — the higher the country’s energy consumption, the greater the economic activity.

If India utilises its energy potential adequately to meet growing demand, it will be better poised to achieve high levels of economic growth. 2012 saw the worst blackouts in the country’s history, accentuating the need for an immediate resolution to several policy and regulatory hurdles.

Major positives have been capacity addition by private players, addition in inter-regional transmission capacity and regulatory interventions that have paved the way for private sector participation in build-up of new transmission systems.

The renewables sector is expected to undergo a paradigm shift in 2013, moving from a regulated environment to a market-oriented one. Concerted efforts from all the stakeholders are urgently called for in 2013, in order to eliminate roadblocks to the power sector’s growth.

‘Innovations to take centre stage'

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD, Biocon:

2012 has witnessed a rapidly changing paradigm in healthcare which has bucked global trends of shift towards generics and biosimilars and the growing influence of emerging markets.

The global biopharma industry continued to pursue a strategy of co-development, in-licensing as well as M&As to address the issue of depleting new drug pipelines.

During 2012, Biocon made significant progress across its businesses particularly in biosimilars and novel molecules where we achieved significant milestones in the development pathway of both biosimilar insulins and novel molecules.

The year ahead, holds immense promise for the Indian biotech sector which is at an inflection point.

The industry has leveraged the entrepreneurial spirit to build a strong foundation which has enabled it to grow at a CAGR of 20 per cent for over a decade. The next year will see innovation taking centrestage, driving significant progress in the areas of biosimilars and diagnostics for affordable healthcare, integrated traditional medicine, biomedical informatics, bio-fuels for less dependence on petroleum, bioremediation for environmental recovery, enhanced agricultural productivity and improved nutritional attributes.

Biopharma and the healthcare sector is the largest component of the Indian biotech industry and the most promising.

The coming year will see collaborative trends gaining momentum with more co-development and marketing partnerships – between multinationals and the Indian companies as they seek to accelerate their growth by leveraging emerging markets. Indian biopharma is expected to witness an uptrend as Emerging markets grow ahead of the developed markets with 75 per cent of the worldwide growth coming out of these markets.

In line with these trends, we will see a surge in both biomanufacturing and bioservices partnerships which will enable innovative solutions for the world coming out of India.

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