JOIN USBiocon Chairperson and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has stressed the need to make science and technology part of the Centre’s economic agenda.
Addressing the Commonwealth Science Conference, she said the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), in particular, should intervene to realise this goal.
A lot needs to be done to garner the faith of the public in science and technology, which will get a boost if the PMO intervenes. Stressing the need to develop a virtuous cycle of innovation to bolster the biotechnology industry in particular, she suggested the creation of a virtuous funding cycle involving the government and the private sector.
Expressing her anguish at the way the money from taxes on research and development sector was used, she said, “A fund of Rs 5,000 crore was generated from this tax and the money was absorbed into the Consolidated Fund of India. What’s the tax fund doing there?”
She said when she started, she had to build credibility from scratch. She said she had to exhibit business acumen for the people in the industry to be convinced to lend support.
“Nobody was ready to buy my story then. Luckily, things have changed and there has been a huge buy-in for what I do now. I was an accidental entrepreneur. I had yeast in my hands, with which I could make beer or insulin. I could not enter brewing because it was a male bastion. So, I decided to go in for insulin and from a garage launch, we are today Asia’s largest insulin facility.”
Shaw said there was an imminent need to build intellectual property-based products.