By Utpal Borpujari / New Delhi
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) government of India has launched three major programmes with a view to making the North East region a hub of biotechnology, and will invest around Rs 200 crore this year to achieve its goal, Science and Technology Minister Dr Harshvardhan has said.
DBT has established a dedicated ‘North Eastern Region Biotechnology Programme Management Cell (NER-BPMC)’, with an annual investment of Rs. 180 crores, to evolve, implement and foster biotechnology research in the North Eastern states.
The initiatives, the minister has said, have been launched commemorating the birth centenary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya.
“DBT has committed to dedicate each year, at least 10% of the budget for the North-East. This year at least Rs.200 crores is expected to be spent for North-East Programmes,” he said.
Among the programmes is the Rs 50-crore “Phyto-Pharma Plant Mission” aimed at conservation and cultivation of endangered and threatened endemic medicinal plants, and discovery of new botanical drugs for unmet medical needs using the rich traditional ethno-botanical knowledge and biodiversity of these states.
The programme will also target improving the availability of authentic and quality botanical raw material on sustainable basis for a boom in the phyto-pharmaceutical industry.
The Missionis expected to enable farmers from the North Eastern states and phyto-pharmaceutical industry to become global leaders in production and export of some quality botanical drugs for unmet medical needs.
The three major objectives of the mission are captive cultivation of selected medicinal plants of the region, which have great demand to ensure supply of authentic and quality botanical raw material to the user industries in the country; development of technology packages for production of GMP grade medicinal plant extracts for export markets; and production of safe and efficacious phyto-pharmaceuticals from medicinal plants for unmet medical needs using modern scientific tools and following global standards.
The DBT is also launching the Brahmaputra Biodiversity and Biology Boat (B4) on the Brahmaputra River, a major ecology hotspot, in collaboration with the DONER Ministry. B4 will establish a large barge on the river with a well-equipped laboratory for analysis of all components of the entire ecosystem of the river and surroundings.
The B4 will link to all the local research institutions along the river, as well as national and international laboratories.
“B4 will have capability to analyse soil, water, environment, plant and animal life, human health andagriculture and an equal component that involves local citizens in the experimental process of science in data generation and management,” the minister said.
B4 will also have a teaching laboratory for school/college children. It is also proposed to have mobile satellite boat labs which will run along the tributaries of Brahmaputra to feedin data to the main B4.
The third programme launched by DBT is “Frugal microscopy through the Foldscope”, which aims at promoting the use of “frugal microscopes”, which are assembled from simple components, including a sheet of paper and a lens, as a tool connecting students and science from the region, with the rest of the country.