India’s bioeconomy likely to touch $300 bn by 2030, claims report

NEW DELHI: India's bioeconomy is likely to touch $150 billion by 2025 and over $300 billion by 2030, a report said on Tuesday.

The India BioEconomy Report 2022, based on the data on biotech sector's contribution to the economy, has been brought out by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).

The report said the country's bioeconomy has reached over $80 billion in 2021, registering a 14.1 per cent growth over $70.2 billion in 2020. It said that India generated $219 million of bioeconomy daily, adding $80.12 billion in 2021.

On an average, at least three biotech startups were incorporated every day in 2021 (a total of 1,128 biotech startups set up in 2021) and the industry crossed $1 billion in research and development spending. “A trebling within a year from $320 million to $1.02 billion,” it added. On the vaccine front, India administered nearly 4 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines per day (total 1.45 billion doses given in 2021), the report said, adding that the country conducted 1.3 million Covid-19 tests each day in 2021 (total of 506.7 million tests).

Speaking at the launch of the report, minister of state for science and technology Jitendra Singh said, the number of biotech startups in the country has increased from 50 to over 5,300 in the last 10 years because of the growing enabling ecosystem and priority to the sector provided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He hoped that biotech startups arising from a strong talent pool is expected to further increase 2 times to reach 10,000-plus by 2025.

He also informed that BIRAC/DBT has established a strong network of 74 specialised bio-incubation centres in 21 states/UTs, including 7 bioincubators in the north east region -- an emerging cluster.

He emphasised that DBT/ BIRAC should continue efforts to nurture a local vibrant bioentrepreneurial ecosystem in the north-east to boost the local bioeconomy.