Address at the Regional Research Laboratory

Bioscience and Drug Development

I am indeed delighted to be in the Regional research laboratories (RRL), Jammu. My greetings to the Director and all the members of RRL family. I am happy to note that RRL is recognized as a leading institute in natural product chemistry, chemical technology and biotechnology. Your focus of research is on medicinal and aromatic plants, their conservation and genetic improvements, tissue culture and plant based drug development. You are also working in the areas of fermentation technology, enzymology, and molecular biology.

I was thinking what thoughts I can share that will benefit the Scientific community at RRL. The topic I have selected is: Biosciences and Drug Development. First and foremost, I would like to recall the report of the sub-committee of Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet (SAC-C) on herbal and natural products and flori-culture with Mrs. L.F. Poonawalla as chairperson. One of the major highlights of the report is short listing seven herbal plants (Aloe Vera, Rauwolfia serpentina, Centella asiatica, Bacopa Monnieri, Taxus baccata, Artemisia annua, Catharantus roseus) which are very important in view of its application as a drug, national international demand and also economic benefits.

Bio Diversity In India

India is blessed with more than 16 bio-climates which enable us to produce a variety of herbal plants. A happy combination of modern biotechnology with the rich natural diversity could produce good results that will extend far beyond the borders of this State. The biggest resource, apart from this, is the highly trained manpower that is available in this State. That resource itself is good enough to guarantee the success of a clean industry dependent on biotechnology which will be one of the primary engines of growth and prosperity for the State. I have absolutely no doubt that the strategies evolved in this regard would place adequate emphasis on having good value addition which alone will give meaning and substance to any such venture. It is important to note that a galaxy of individuals through their efforts and vision enabled this institution to become a premier research centre of the country. I am also happy to note that liberal financial support is forthcoming from the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India.

The nation's strengths predominantly reside in its natural and human resources. In natural resources, India is endowed with a vast coast-line with marine resources and also oil wealth. In minerals, apart from conventional material resources, it is well-known that India has the largest deposits of titanium, beryllium and tungsten. India ranks among the top few nations having a rich bio-diversity. Particularly, in the herbal area there are potential applications for developing multiple products for nutrition, prevention and cure of diseases. Of the global herbal product market of US$ 61 billion, China has a share of around US $ 6 billion, whereas India's share is not even US $ One billion. There are tremendous opportunities for growth in this area. India has similar potential for promoting floriculture and aquaculture in a big way. Knowledge-based value addition for these natural resources would mean exporting value-added products rather than merely the raw materials. Use of IT for commercialisation and marketing can increase our outreach and speed enormously. Ancient knowledge is a unique resource of India for it has the treasure of a minimum of 5000 years of civilisation. It is essential to leverage this wealth for national well being as well as to seek global presence for the nation.

Bio Diversity - Technology Prosperity Matrix

One of the core competences of India is Bio Diversity. Bio Diversity and technology combined will yield value added products. In biodiversity, few countries like INDIA, CHINA, BRAZIL, INDONESIA, and MEXICO are very rich. Technology is needed for developing a genetically engineered seed or transforming a molecule extracted from the herb into a drug. Today technologically advanced nations in this field are USA, JAPAN, FRANCE, GERMANY and UK. What is needed is high productivity in farming, biodiversity material and technology integrated. There are some regions in desert nations where biodiversity and tech are poor. Today there is no nation having rich bio-diversity and high technology together. Therefore the challenge is Integration of technological best and abundant biodiversity of India.

Value Addition

India is rich in herbs, germ plasm and micro organisms. Industrially developed countries are importing these bio-resources in the raw forms and add value to them for export to developing countries including India as special seeds, medicines and bio-materials, fully protecting patents of these products. Instead of allowing export of such resources and importing value added products at high cost, India must add its own technology for conversion of such resources to value added products for use in domestic requirement and also for export.

Biotechnology in Health Care

I would like to share my experiences while I was in Anna University, Chennai. One of them resulted in getting a patent for a new molecule discovered from a herb as an anti cancer drug. This came out of the fusion of two great minds, one was a bio technologist and the other was a traditional siddha medical practitioner. The traditional system of medicine like Ayurveda, Sidda etc have advocated and practiced preventive and curative medicinal recipies specific to individuals. The body, mind, food and environment were looked at holistically to suggest a preventive or curative approach to health. New technologies as evidenced by human genome sequencing, proteomics, chemogenomics, ultra high throughput screening is revolutionizing drug discovery . Medicinal plants offer enormous scope for development of drugs. We need to create database of traditional medicinal plants for specific bioactivity and lead for development of new drugs. India has got tremendous opportunities for herbal farming and research with focus on the following components.

• Development of in vitro propagation methods for understudied and unstudied plants.
• Development of an effective network for dissemination of information, training and technology transfer and post harvest technology.
• Creation of Technology parks and demonstration units.
• Development of industries near farming areas for value added products.
• Consortium for collection of raw materials processing and marketing.
• Standardization of quality parameters. Centralized clinical trials and toxicological studies.

Bioinformatics

The convergence of bioscience and IT into Bioinformatics has given the thrust to researchers for genomics-based drug discovery and development. Pressure is mounting over the pharmaceutical companies to reduce or at least control costs, and have a growing need for new informatics tools to help manage the influx of data from genomics, and turn that data into tomorrow's drugs.

Bioinformatics data plays a vital role and emerging as a business model for the medical and pharmaceutical sector. Key areas such as gene prediction, data mining, protein structure modeling and prediction, protein folding and stability, macromolecular assembly and modeling of complex biological systems are thriving and IT has major role to play in these areas in bringing the tools to the manage the high throughput experiments and the data they generate, and sharing and integrating all the data in a meaningful way which results into the detailed models of complex systems, particularly biological pathways. Jammu University could consider establishing a centre of excellence in the field of bioinformatics in Collaboration with Dept. of Biotechnology and RRL, Jammu.

Mining the minds

India has the strength of over a billion people. The Indian society in its own way has to make innovations continuously, not only in urban areas but also in rural areas. For example, the honey bee network movement is indeed an excellent attempt. Beautiful minds guide constructive and noble hands. The creativity can be anywhere and any part of the country. It may start from a fisherman hamlet or a farmer's household or a dairy farm or cattle breeding centre or it emanates from class rooms or labs or industries or R&D centres.

Innovation

There is a need to nurture innovation at our work places. Innovation is market driven. Innovation can also be making improved performance of the product/system technique by adopting a change using most alternative technologies. Technology is the most nonlinear tool that can effect the fundamental changes in the ground rules of economic competitiveness. Science is linked to technology through applications. Technology is linked to economy and environment through manufacture. Economy and environment link Technology to society. So there is an integrated relationship between science , technology , environment, manufacturing and the society.

Competitiveness

The world Economic Forum has defined competitiveness as "the ability of a national economy to achieve sustained high rates of economic growth". As per this definition ranking of different countries for 2002-2003, according to the forum, are: USA[1], Taiwan[3], Singapore[4], Australia[7], Hong Kong[17], China[33] and India[48]. The world competitiveness is therefore decided by a triangular combination consisting of progressiveness of industry, technology push and status of governmental deregulation, all working in unison. Technology-led industrial growth can be sustained only through establishing an innovation system. It is through the process of innovation that knowledge is converted into wealth. Further, innovation is an important factor for the competitiveness of both service and manufacturing sectors and hence the urgent need to put in place an innovation system. Such a system would involve network of firms, knowledge-producing institutions, bridging institutions and customers/users in a value addition-creating production chain. With such a consortium, the innovation system would tap into the growing stock of global knowledge, assimilate and adapt it to local needs and finally create new knowledge and technology. India must evolve such systems to improve its competitiveness in a global marketplace. Competitiveness emerges from the strength of knowledge power, which is powered by technology that in turn is powered by capital. In the coming years, competitiveness would be derived from the ability to recognize and integrate all forms of knowledge leading to innovation in every area of human endeavour.

Conclusion

The bio research transforming into technology will lead to higher production of agricultural products. Bio- Technology has got tremendous potential in leading to pest free agriculture production with genetically modified seeds to increase productivity.

For the nation today, what is needed is a combination of technology and leadership using the technology to bring economic prosperity. 'Developed India', as defined by us can only be powered by economic strength. The economic strength has to be powered by competitiveness and competitiveness has to be powered by knowledge power. Knowledge power has to be powered by technology and technology has to be powered by innovation and business. Business has to be powered by innovative management and management has to be powered by leadership. What are the characteristics of leadership? A leader will neither be a commander nor a super boss, but he or she will be a visionary, facilitator of the team and a thinker. Above all, the nobility of the mind is the hallmark of the leader.

My best wishes to you all.