Shillong, Sept 02: Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD) is the only institute in NERin the ambit of Biotechnology Research and Innovation Council (BRIC), Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India established at Imphal, Manipur and has three Centres in other states of NER including Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim.
BRIC-IBSD is working on “Bioresources development and their sustainable use through biotechnological interventions for the socio-economic growth of the North Eastern Region”. IBSD is synergizing different research areas for the development of bioeconomy from bioresources with special reference to NER.
Notably, the Union Cabinet has approved the‘BioE3 (Biotechnology for Economy, Environment and Employment) Policy in a bid to fostering high performance biomanufacturing mainly focussed on strengthening science and technology innovation ecosystem, technology development, employment and entrepreneurial, promoting sustainability and bioeconomy.
The policy will further strengthen ‘Green Growth’, Net Zero’ economy and Lifestyle for the Environment by promoting ‘Circular Bioeconomy’.This will provide a frame work to intensify research and innovation, boosting domestic biomanufacturing, promoting integrated use of artificial intelligence (AI), setting up facilities (Biomanufacturing Hubs, Biofoundry and Bio-AIs) for scaling-up, pre-commercial manufacturing and nurturing cohort of highly skilled workforce.
The BioE3 Policy will add substantial contributions to the ‘Make in India’ initiative by fostering the development of bio-based products with minimal carbon footprints and lays down the Bio-vision for Viksit Bharat.
This policy will encourage collaborative research and active engagement with potential partners & stakeholders to synergies ongoing investments in biomanufacturing hubs and different startups. This will enable growth of an economically and environmentally sustainable bioeconomy and contribute for making Bharat self-reliant.
The present era is an opportune time to invest in the industrialization of biology to promote sustainable and circular practices to address some of the critical societal issues-such as climate change mitigation, food security and human health.
IBSD is working in Indo-Burma biodiversity Hotspot which is one of the biodiversity Hotspots of the world which is very unique in terms of diversity of bioresources including plants, microbes, animals, traditional foods.
The BioE3 policy will felicitate sustainable utilization of such bioresources through scientific knowledge for innovation, scaling up and biomanufacturing of enzymes, chemicals, functional foods, smart proteins and biotherapeutics.
Globally, there is growing demand for biotherapeutics and nutritional foods which can be harnessed from resources like plants, algae, fungi, insects and new approaches like fermentation, plant-based products etc.
This policy will facilitate production of smart proteins and functional foods with low carbon footprints using synthetic biology and metabolic engineering tools.
This policy will play a vital role in establishing Bio-AI hubs by integrating AI to analysis large-scale biological data encouraging the development of bio-based products and expanding job creation.
Prof. Pulok Kumar Mukherjee, Director, BRIC-IBSD highlighted that IBSD is working on the unique bioresources of NER and integrated study for their scientific validation, value addition to propel innovations, discoveries and inventions for catalysing the growth of industry in NER for livelihood generation and boosting bioeconomy with different perspectives. He added that BioE3 Policy is a great landmark initiative of Govt. of India towards contributing bioeconomy from bioresources.
