'India's value proposition offer woos FDI'

Bangalore, June 8: India has become the centre of gravity in terms of foreign investment in various sectors, especially IT and Bio Technology, as it gave greater value proposition for every Dollar invested, Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Director General Dr R A Mashelkar has said.

Delivering a special address at the CEO's conclave at the three-day Bangalore Bio-2006 here last evening, he said the prevailing vibrant democracy, culture of diversity and large chunk of young talents were the major factors which attracted global attention towards India.

Predicting that this new trend of India-centric investment would continue to be the country's strength for the next three to four decades registering an eight to nine per cent growth, Dr Mashelkar said the large internal market was another major factor which drove the Indian economy.

He said the visionary initiatives taken by the Union Government about two decades ago were yielding results now in the BT and IT sectors. Every parent wished to send their children to access the knowledge of either IT or BT. BT started in this country not because of any private initiative, but because of the Government's efforts through funding, he recalled.

Dr Mashelkar said that during the last three years, the Centre had taken a lot of initiatives to remove the irritants which impeded the growth of biotechnology, including addressing multiple regulatory issues. The BT industry was experiencing a hassle-free regulatory mechanism after the Government brought in amendments to the age-old patent rights and created system to protect Intellectual Property rights. The Government also transformed itself from the regime of permissive and preventive to promotional and precautionary in moulding policies on gene products. The irritants in clinical trials and problem of data exposebility were also addressed favourably to the emerging BT sector, he added.

Exhorting the Indian scientists and all stakeholders to make use of the rich human resources available in the country, Dr Mashelkar urged them to strive hard and join the club of top five countries in the BT sector. To achieve it, the nation should transform its young talent into human capital which understood well the areas of IPR, management of clinical research and other related areas. He favoured institutional support in terms of funding to the BT sector as it was heavily capital intensive.

While unfolding the tremendous opportunities lying ahead in the BT sector, he cautioned that it should be developed and harnessed in such a way that it would benefit all the sections of the society. BT was not an end itself, but a means to achieve the welfare of all.

UNI