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Ambar Singh Roy

The biotechnology park to come up at Salua, near Kharagpur, will focus on healthcare that taps Nature.

BREWING HEALTH with Nature's inputs.

Eastern India will soon have its own biotechnology park. And unlike its counterparts in Pune, Hyderabad and Lucknow, the proposed park that is being set up at Salua near Kharagpur will have as its nodal agency the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), the oldest and the largest institute in the IIT system.

While plans for this park were unveiled several months ago, eWorld recently met Prof Satyahari Dey, Head of the Department of Biotechnology, IIT-KGP, for an update on what's brewing.

"IIT, Kharagpur will prepare the concept paper and the technical plan for the incubation facility of the park. Healthcare will be the core area of activity with the emphasis being on recombinant therapeutics and diagnostics, phytomedicine, nutraceuticals and beauticeuticals, bio-processed foods and enzymes, healthcare bioinformatics and embedded systems," he says.

According to Prof Dey, in the area of phytomedicine, the park will "engage in medicine development in the herbal sector with complete analytical knowledge of the ingredients".

With regard to beauticeuticals, he says: "The cosmetics industry in India provides huge business opportunities. While many claim to offer herbal products, in reality it is mostly non-herbal based. We shall provide as inputs only totally herbal ingredients in the beauty care products that we develop." In the area of bio-processed foods and enzymes, the park will concentrate on specialty healthcare enzymes and dietetics.In healthcare bioinformatics and embedded systems, the focus will be on healthcare-related application supporting areas.

"The park will manufacture healthcare-related, low-volume, high-value commodities that have zero or low waste outflow," he says.

Bio-pharma companies from across the globe will operate from the park. The end-beneficiaries will be enterprises that require a high level of quality control and R&D support from the park's incubation facility. "The focus will be on interdependence of participating industries in the park with a view to facilitating value-addition to their technologies and products", says Prof Dey.

Spread over 200 acres of land close to National Highway 6, the Rs 100-crore project is being set up jointly by the Government of West Bengal and the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, in public-private partnership mode.

ambar_ singhroy@rediffmail.com

More Stories on : Bio-tech & Genetics | Alternative Medicines | Health

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