Industrial biotechnology: An Indian perspective

Abstract

Advancement in the field of biotechnology has opened a vast global market. The Indian biotechnology arena is promising for advance and pioneering growth with its immense growth potential which could play a significant role toward India’s contribution to global industrial biotechnology. Today, India is one of the fastest-growing trillion-dollar economies in the world and the fifth largest overall, with a GDP (gross domestic product) of $2.94 trillion. Biotechnology (BT) and information technology (IT) are the key drivers contributing to this growth which constitutes approximately 5% of the country’s total annual GDP. Indian biotechnology growth is fueled by bio-pharmaceutical, bio-industrial, bio-services, bio-agricultural, and bioinformatics, and among them, the bio-industrial area is one of the most promising and advanced. New approaches which Indian industrial biotechnology is exploring, include harnessing microorganisms for the production of value-added bioactive ingredients such as industrial enzymes, organic acids, bulk chemicals, and single-cell proteins, which have played a predominant role in the overall development of biotechnology after bio-pharmaceuticals. The above factors made India one of the world’s top 12 destinations for biotechnology. In this article, we review the status of the biotechnological industry and its future perspective in context to the Indian market and its role in global economy.