Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, May 18, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, May 18, 2002 |
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Government
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Policy Agri-Biz & Commodities - Bio-tech & Genetics Bengal announces biotech policy Our Bureau
The West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and the Chief Secretary, Mr Souren Roy, announcing the State's biotechnology policy in Kolkata on Friday.
KOLKATA, May 17 THE West Bengal Government today announced its biotechnology policy, which envisages, among other things, special incentives for early-bird investors. Stating this on the eve of the completion of a year in office by his Government, the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said that the policy is expected to boost research and investment in units involving medicinal plants. "Like China, we are trying to reduce our dependence on the multinational companies for meeting our medicinal requirements,'' he said. The policy announced today has scope for offering special incentives to investors setting up pharmaceutical and food processing units. On the issue of genetically modified crops, Mr Bhattacharjee said the policy deals with bio-safety and ethical regulation. Effective steps would be taken to form bio-ethical and bio-safety committees, which will advise on the introduction of specific transgenic plants for commercial agriculture. According to the Chief Minister, one of the objectives of the new policy was to create `centres of excellence' which will have modern infrastructure for R & D activities. These centres will have online access to major institutes and corporate houses of the country. Talks are afoot with an American University and a Cuban University for collaboration in this respect. The State has already earmarked Rs 5 crore for setting up a unit on its own at an investment of around Rs 5 crore. Mr Bhattachrajee said that the proposed centres will take initiatives to develop new biotech products, develop new processing techniques and will also formulate methodologies for certification of bio-tech products. He said that two of the State's crop research institutes were doing good work on improving rice variety and productivity and contact has been established with the Manilla Rice Institute for tie-ups. Work was also on to improve the quality of pineapple and banana. Apart from the four centres set up in the State (three in north Bengal and one in south) to increase production of some fruits and set up processing units, promoting research on medicinal plants was a thrust area for the West Bengal Government, he said. "Such plants are available in almost every district in the State and more so in the Himalayan region," Mr Bhattacharjee said. To a question as to how the policy would help small and medium farmers, the Chief Minister said they would get better quality seeds.
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