India News | Bio-manufacturing, Bio-foundry Initiative to Boost Bio-economy: Jitendra Singh
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said a new scheme of bio-manufacturing and bio-foundry will be launched soon to provide environment-friendly measures such as biodegradable polymers, bio-plastics, bio-pharmaceuticals, and bio-agri-inputs.
New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said a new scheme of bio-manufacturing and bio-foundry will be launched soon to provide environment-friendly measures such as biodegradable polymers, bio-plastics, bio-pharmaceuticals, and bio-agri-inputs.
"This scheme will also help in transforming today's consumptive manufacturing paradigm to the one based on regenerative principles," Sitharaman said presenting the Interim Budget for 2024-25 in Parliament.
Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh emphasised the scheme's importance saying it has potential to transform global economy.
"Bio-manufacturing can fundamentally transform the global economy from today's consumptive manufacturing paradigm to the one based on regenerative principles," he told PTI.
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He said the DBT programme on bio-manufacturing and bio-foundries to support green growth was in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of 'Viksit Bharat' by 2047.
"This is for the first time a government has looked at the bio sector. In 2014, we were only a 10-billion-dollar bio-economy. Over the past eight, nine years, the bio-economy in India has grown to 140 billion dollars," Singh said.
"We have the resources to become leaders in bio-economy. When we talk of the next 25 years to reach that pedestal of Viksit Bharat, value addition is going to come from bio-economy. Bio-economy is going to be a huge strength and an important component of our future growth story," the minister added.
A senior government official said bio-manufacturing are versatile processes that have the potential to create bio-based products allowing efficient utilisation of resources in a scalable cost-effective manner with reduced environmental impact.
Bio-manufacturing can be used to produce biodegradable polymers, which naturally decompose over time and have a smaller overall environmental impact, the official said, adding, the new materials made from waste plastic through biotechnology routes have the potential to mitigate plastic pollution.
"The new scheme will provide a framework to empower Indian institutions, startups and industries to engage in transformative innovations by intensifying research, innovation, and entrepreneurship; boosting domestic bio-manufacturing capability by enabling synergy between science, technology, engineering and manufacturing," the official said.
It will also accelerate transition to bio-manufacturing by promoting integrated use of artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalization with -omics and upstream biotechnology innovations.
It will also provide a framework for setting up 'moolankur' or bio-enabler facilities for scaling up and pre-commercial manufacturing and foster high performance bio-manufacturing, and nurturing a cohort of highly skilled workforce.
An integrated bio-manufacturing approach will create innovative solutions for fostering the growth of bio-economy by facilitating scale up and commercialisation of bio-based products; reducing, reusing, recycling of waste material and intensifying entrepreneurial momentum.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)