K'taka: Biotech Industry face manpower shortage

Bangalore, Feb 16: The flourishing Biotech industry, which witnessed a astounding growth rate of more than 30 per cent during the last three years, might face a break in its accelerated growth with manpower shortage acting as a spoilsport growth.

The Industry which was expected to move beyond five billion US dollars by 2010 and touch 25 billion dollars by 2015 is likely to face a acute shortage of trained manpower, according to an industry survey carried out by BioSpectrum, a Cybermedia Group of publication, in its latest issue.

The study indicated that India produce about 8000 fresh biotech post graduates and graduates annually with over 200 Colleges offering specialised courses. The current pool of scientific manpower engaged in the biotech industry, estimated by BioSpectrum magazine to be 15,000 is expected to grow four fold to touch 60,000 by 2010.

The study pointed to a huge gap between the industry's expectations and availability of quality manpower. Union Biotechnology Secretary M K Bhan commenting on the shortage said ''We failed in creating the human resources. We are way down in numbers. I see that as the biggest challenge. We can build many centers but there must be institutional leadership''.

According to him the biotech institutes need a new kind of drive and excitement. The old system and structure was not sufficient.

Though India's science budget was growing at 30 per cent annually, it could grow much faster if there was a demand by the new structure, he added while urging the scientific community to reach out for more.

Respondents to the magazine's study were unanimous that there was an absolute shortage of qualified work force and that Indian University education was still not at the cutting edge. A recent survey on India's Top 20 schools showed that 60 per cent of the students from the Top Public institutions prefer to go abroad and study further rather than take up a job. This trend was a clear pointer that the brighter students were not joining the industry.

The survey also pointed to a gap between the academia's assessments of their students as against the industry's requirements.

Dr M Vidyasagar, Executive Vice President, Tata Consultancy Services. says ''there is a serious shortage of well trained persons in the bioinformatics sector. We need to invest in people's potential.'' Reactions from the Bioservices sector are no different.

Dr Anupama Ramkumar, Director, Arkus Clinical Trial Support Solutions say that ''unless the government and the industry make a concerted effort to address this issue, this supply-demand gap is going to remain as is.'' Dr.Ramkumar also bemoans the fact that these training institutions do not have a uniform standard or curriculum leading to inconsistent output.

UNI