Noting that India’s bio-economy has grown eight times in the last eight years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the country was not too far from reaching the league of top-10 nations in biotech’s global ecosystem.

“We have grown from $10 billion to $80 billion,” he said and listed several reasons why India was being considered a land of opportunities in the field of biotech. He said the country, among other things, has a diverse population and diverse climatic zones; it has a talented human capital pool; it was making increasing efforts towards the ease of doing business; the demand for bio-products was increasing in the country continuously and the biotech sector has an exemplary track record in the country.

Inaugurating the Biotech Startup Expo – 2022 at the Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, the PM said today when the country was taking new pledges during the ‘Amrit Kaal’, the role of the biotech industry was very significant in its development.

Talking about the growing reputation of Indian professionals on the global stage, he said; “trust in the skill and innovation of our IT professionals in the world is at a new high.”

Modi said his government has worked tirelessly for improving the potential and power of the Indian economy. He emphasised that there was stress on ‘’the whole of the government approach’’. The ‘mantra’ of Sabka Saath-Sabka Vikas was applicable to different sectors of India also, he said. This has resulted in a reversal of the situation when only a few selected sectors were focused upon and others were left to fend for themselves.

Today, he said, every sector was giving an impetus to the development of the country. Therefore, every sector’s ‘Saath’ and every sector ‘Vikas’ were the need of the hour. This change in thinking and approach was giving results, he added.

Modi said unprecedented steps were being taken in the biotech sector which was clearly manifested in the startup ecosystem.

“In the last eight years, the number of start-ups in our country has increased from a few hundred to 70000. These start-ups are made in about 60 different industries. In this also, more than 5000 startups are associated with biotech. Every 14th startup in the biotechnology sector and more than 1100 such biotech start-ups emerged in the last year itself”, he informed the gathering.

Further talking about the shift of talent towards the sector, the PM said the number of investors in the biotech sector has risen by nine times and biotech incubators and funding for them has increased by seven times. The number of biotech incubators has increased from six in 2014 to 75 now. Biotech products have increased from ten products to more than 700, he said.