After IT, Naidu sets his eyes on genome technology

KVVV Charya

By 2020, Andhra Pradesh must achieve a level of development that will provide its people with varied and realisable opportunities to achieve prosperity and well-being and enjoy a high quality of life, says the vision statement of the state’s chief minister and tech savvy politician, N Chandrababu Naidu.

For the last couple of years, the Andhra Pradesh government has been giving a great thrust to information technology (IT) to enhance the state’s economic status and to attract foreign capital.

To further sustain and maintain the process, the state government is now embarking on pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (BT) as the latest thrust sectors. In the process, genome technology seems to have caught Mr Naidu’s imagination this time, and he has initiated various incentives for the sector’s growth. He has even proposed to amend the labour Acts allowing biotech companies to engage women employees, even in the third shift.

Further, the Naidu government has decided to set up a “genome valley”, for the first time in the country, as a guiding factor for this industry. The government has already identified about 600 sq km of area covering Shamirpet, Medchal, Keesra and Uppal encompassing the twin cities besides the 150-acre ICICI Knowledge Park at Turkapalli for the purpose of the proposed valley.

This apart, the state government has been working out plans to replicate the scheme of development of exclusive parks for biotechnology on par with the software parks throughout the state. All the units located in the biotech park will be benefited with a nominal sales tax of 1 per cent (the present sales tax is between 8-16 per cent) for high-value products manufactured there. A similar incentive has been offered to all the biotech companies in the state.

The state government announced the Biotechnology Policy-2001 last week, which was dedicated to Dr Yellapragada Subba Row, an outstanding biochemist known for his discovery of Aureomycin and related life-saving drugs. Besides Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have announced a specific biotech policy, and Kerala, too, is expected to follow suit.

The policy has been drafted by Biotechnology Advisory Committee set up by Andhra Pradesh government with B Balasubramanian as its chairman. The other members include MV Rao, A Venkateshwarlu, Lalji Singh, Seyed Hasanain etc. The committee will meet periodically and review the progress, according to the chief minister.

The main object of the policy will be to take up a detailed inventory of bio-resources in the state with the help of universities, research institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and private agencies. State government agencies have already collected about two lakh samples and 5,000 flowering plants.

There are also plans to develop and create the required infrastructure facilities to carry out research and development in biotechnology and allied areas. For this, the state will have to establish a regulatory framework for research activity. There are also plans to oversee the financial requirements of promising scientists and facilitate the flow of funds from venture capital and bank credits.

As per the new policy, though the state is providing all major incentives such as customised packages, single-window clearances, tax incentives etc., on a par with Karnataka, there will be an additional incentive of Rs 20,000 per job created by a company which is set up outside the genome valley and Rs 30,000 incentive per job to a company which has set up a unit in the valley.

Further, 100 per cent exemption will be granted from registration and stamp duty to units in the biotech parks, which is not the case in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu .

Besides, the government plans to earmark land for training institutes and residential zones for biotech professionals in the proposed valley. It has identified 10 distinct areas, which include diagnostics, therapeutics, pharmacogenomics, bioinformatics, agriculture biotechnology, industrial biotechnology, marine biotechnology, forest and environment technology.

The AP government also plans to create a ‘Biotechnology Development Fund’ (BDF) with an initial corpus of Rs 50 crore in a bid to promote research and development. The new policy document has covered various impending issues, including strategies for development of biotechnology, encouraging research and development, infrastructure development, incentives to biotech companies and related activities.

Coming to protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs), the state government, in collaboration with Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) and the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), has established AP Technology Development Centre, which has taken up the work of development of data bases on worldwide patents, providing patent search facilities and to create awareness about IPRs among the scientists and entrepreneurs.

To provide impetus to the policy, the state government proposes to create a separate department headed by a scientist and biotechnologist. It also intends to set up a bioinformatics institute to facilitate advanced research in the area of biotechnology.