Bhubaneswar, Nov. 4: Antibiotics, which played a huge role in combating the Covid-
19 virus that killed more than 5.3 lakh people in India, should be viewed as a kind of
national security, an expert in the field of biotechnology said on Monday.
There was a need for development in this field for which the cooperation of the
society at large was needed, Prof. N. Tajuddin, Pro-Vice Chancellor of B.S. Abdur Rehman
Crescent Institute of Science and Technology, a Deemed to be University at Chennai, said
while addressing the inaugural program of the two-day national seminar on ‘Research and
Innovations in Industrial and Marine Biotechnology: A Circular Economy’ at the Siksha ‘O’
Anusandhan (SOA) here.
Pointing out that environmental pollution and malnutrition had emerged as huge
problems for the world, Prof. Tajuddin said biotechnology had a huge role to play in
mitigating these problems.
Sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology’s Science and Engineering
Research Board (DST-SERB), the seminar is being organised by SOA’s Centre for Industrial
Biotechnology Research (CIBR) in collaboration with National Research Development
Corporation (NRDC) and Biotechnology Research Society of India (BRSI),
Thiruvananthapuram.
The seminar, being attended by researchers, industry experts and policy makers,
aimed to foster discussions on innovative biotechnological solutions which align with
circular economy principles. “The subject of the seminar is very important in the present
scenario as industrial and marine biotechnology are poised to play critical roles in
addressing contemporary global challenges such as resource scarcity, environmental
degradation and climate change,” Prof. Hrudaynath Thatoi, Director of CIBR, said.
Addressing the program, Prof. Pravat Kumar Roul, Vice-Chancellor of Odisha
University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), said that biotechnology was the tool
which could help in development of agriculture. “Biotechnology is the future of
technology,” he said adding there were 6000 start ups, 760 companies and 800 products in
the field of biotechnology.
Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda, Vice-Chancellor of SOA, who presided over the session,
said SOA was focusing on biotechnology and was in the process of organising an
international conference on the subject in November next year.
SOA had been laying a lot of thrust on research and had set up 19 research centres
including CIBR till now, he said.
The program was also addressed by Dr. Anindita Chakraborty, Scientist, UGC-DAE
CSR, Kolkata Center who opined that science had no existence without biotechnology.
Dr. Sibani Mohapatra and Dr. Amrita Banerjee also addressed the program which was
conducted by Dr. Sasmita Mohanty.
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