Mumbai: After having showcased its prowess in the information technology and business process outsourcing sectors, the need of the hour for the Indian industry is to step up the ante in the biotechnology sector. Why? Given India's natural resources and talented manpower there are opportunities galore in biotech.

Biotechnology is any technique that uses living organisms on substances derived from these organisms to make or modify a product thereby improving plants, animals or microorganisms for specific use. Simply put, biotechnology is about converting apples to oranges.

India has the second largest population in the world and that automatically makes it the second largest market for biotech products and services. A geographical study of the Indian subcontinent has revealed that India has the most varied species of flora and fauna.

In percentage terms, India has roughly 6.0 per cent of the total flowering plants that are present in the world, about 7.6 per cent of the total mammal species, 12.6 per cent of bird species, and 11.7 per cent of fishes. In effect, India's immense biodiversity offers ideal conditions for biotech companies to set up shop here as they can find samples with ease and conduct field research more efficiently.

In addition, India has one of the largest agricultural sectors in the world and has varied climatic zones that can help in research and development of different agri-biotech products.

Biotechnology is essentially a knowledge-based industry for which the strongest asset requirement is human capital. According to Confederation of Indian Industry estimates, we produce roughly 2.5 million graduates in IT, engineering and life sciences, about 6,50,000 post-graduates and nearly 1,500 PhDs qualified in bio-sciences and engineering every year. Moreover, these nerds speak English, too.

To top it all, there is venture capital available. Several venture capital companies have and are setting up base over here. The companies have pots of money and are today willing to scrutinise any winner biotech project.

Of now, India's contribution to the global biotech market is small but even within this limited contribution, it has proved its competency in certain select areas of biotechnology. These are in bio-process engineering, gene manipulation in microbes and animal cells, downstream processing and isolation methods and recombinant DNA technology of plants and animals.

The biotech industry is categorised into three segments - medical biotech, agri-biotech and services - with each segment having several distinctive features.

The feature of the medical biotech segment is that the Indian pharmaceutical industry is growing at a fast pace. A McKinsey study shows that the generic-based drug industry is expected to grow from a present $5 billion to a $25 billion industry by 2010. The vaccine market is about $100 million today and is growing at an annual rate of 20 per cent.

In the agri-biotech segment, the potential is vast, as India is the second largest food producer in the world. In addition, the country has an 8,000-kilometre-long coastline rich in aquaculture. India has well-established scientific infrastructure in agriculture, rich biodiversity and is a source of low-cost skilled manpower.

India's trump card in the services segment is that here drug discovery process can be conducted at the lowest cost. Foreign companies are facing labour shortage and high-cost problems for their in-house drug discovery processes and these activities can be shifted to India.

Bioinformatics, which is about using complex computational techniques to simplify even more complex genetic and molecular research, is, globally, a $2-billion market today and is expected to grow to $60 billion by 2005. Indian software companies like Satyam, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services have already made forays into this market. Given the computational genius of Indians and the track records of these companies, a lot of action will be seen in this area in the days to come.

Combining all the three segments of biotechnology, the global market is presently $25 billion a year and is expected to grow to $60 billion a year by 2015. The iron is hot and the time to strike for the Indian biotech industry is, well, now.

Recognising the high potential of the biotechnology sector and its significance for India going forward, the Indian government has attempted to create a conducive environment for expanding the sector. It has set up relevant scientific infrastructure including the setting up of the Central Department of Biotechnology. The government has also placed the industry on par with the IT segment for tax concessions.

At the end of it all, the biotech industry is not just about markets, dollars, venture capital and six-figure salaries. This is a frontier 21^st century science, which has the potential to do what has never been done before - deliver mankind from the scourge of disease and hunger.

Sequencing of the human genome, which has been done, will enable scientists to understand the behaviour of molecules and develop cures for even the worst diseases affecting mankind. Biotech research will also produce higher-yielding modified crops, which are shielded from harsh and varying weather conditions.

Finally, the poor Indian farmer can now hope for two square meals a day in the not-too-distant future.