NITI Aayog suggests ₹50,000-crore fund for biotech growth, Pg18

Key Highlights:

• NITI Aayog has proposed a ₹50,000-crore BioEconomy Growth Fund to boost India's biotechnology sector.
• The roadmap aims for India to become one of the top three biotechnology powers globally by 2035.
• A dedicated Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for biomanufacturing is also recommended.
• The initiative includes six National Biotechnology Missions to drive specific areas of growth.
• India's bioeconomy is targeted to expand from $195.3 billion in 2025 to $691 billion by 2035.

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Detailed Insights:

• The proposed BioEconomy Growth Fund for 2026-35 aims to bridge the "valley of death" between research and commercialization.
• The fund will offer blended finance, equity-risk instruments, and viability-gap funding for biomanufacturing and advanced therapeutics.
• The report, titled "Roadmap for building India as a leading bioeconomy powerhouse by 2035," was released on Thursday.
• It suggests moving beyond the existing Biotechnology for Economy, Environment and Employment (BioE3) policy framework.
• The strategy seeks to create over 30 million high-value jobs within the biotechnology sector.
• The six National BioMissions include GeneIndia for gene therapies and AgriBio 2.0 for climate-resilient crops.
• Other missions are BioX Foundry for synthetic biology, One Health Grid for disease surveillance, and Marine Biotechnology for marine bio-products.
• BioPharmaNext aims to establish India as a global hub for biologics, biosimilars, and AI-enabled drug discovery.

Key Concepts Involved:

• BioEconomy Growth Fund: A proposed ₹50,000-crore fund to support the biotechnology sector from research to commercialization.
• Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme: A government initiative offering incentives on incremental sales for products manufactured in India.
• National Biotechnology Missions: Focused programs designed to achieve specific, measurable outcomes in key biotechnology areas by 2035.
• Valley of Death: The critical stage in innovation where promising research struggles to secure funding for commercial development.