Visakhapatnam: In what seems to be another instance of sheer bureaucratic malaise on the part of the state government, there has been no movement on the establishment of a biotechnology park and incubation centre at Vizag — despite two reminders over the past year from the Centre. Responding to a letter from Vizag MP K. Haribabu in March 2015, seeking the establishment of such a park, Union science and technology minister Dr Harsh Vardhan had asked the state government twice to send a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for approval - but got no reply to either letter.
Dr Harsh Vardhan had said in his letter that the DPR was a prerequisite to assess the feasibility of pilot projects such as these. Department of Biotechnology (DBT) secretary K. Vijay Raghavan in his latest letter to state chief secretary S.P. Tucker said, “I shall be grateful if you could kindly expedite the preparation and submission of a DPR which will be placed before the expert committee on Biotechnology Parks/ Incubators for examination/consideration in the department of biotechnology.”
The DBT has been encouraging the establishment of biotechnology parks to facilitate product advancement and innovation through the development of a biotechnology industrial cluster and to produce biotechnologists and entrepreneurs who have a strong foundation in research and innovation. With many multinational and bio-pharma companies initiating their R&D and manufacturing operations in India, there has been rising demand for biotech incubators. Both the Central and state governments are making efforts to promote biotechnology activities by setting up biotechnology parks, incubators.
“Such incubators and institutes will bring in highly specialised skilled manpower to the city which will help build a proper ecosystem that can attract more such institutes and also improve quality of life around. Its unfortunate that the state government is not responding to the Centre’s offer. State government should act quickly,” said director of AP Chamber of Commerce and Industry Federation, O. Naresh Kumar.
