India plans Rs 100 cr Bio-IT park

CHENNAI: An initiative for the setting up of the world's first Bio-IT Park in India, has been announced by the Minister for Communications & Information Technology (MCIT) Dayanidhi Maran . The establishment of a dedicated integrated infrastructure for BIO-IT industry is seen as a significant Government initiative to promote India as a global hub for IT solutions (products and services) within the life sciences sector. The Bio-IT Park would be set up by STPI.

Maran said that the Bio-IT sector, which represents application of IT in Life Sciences, is at a nascent stage in India but offers extensive opportunity to the Indian IT Industry. The Government has identified the Bio-IT sector as one of the catalyst to propel future growth in both the IT & BT sectors and further promote knowledge based industries in the country. The park would be in the form of a Public-Private Partnership. STPI would invite proposals for participation from private parties to collaborate in the initiative. The proposed Park will address the IT related needs of the global life sciences industry and is expected to attract investments (both domestic and foreign) in the related areas.

He announced that several major steps/activities to establish the proposed Park, such as conduct of series of workshops across the country and the Park's concept refinement, project feasibility study have been completed. Planning Commision has also given in principle approval for Government's participation in the project.

STPI has engaged Ernst & Young, a leading global consultancy firm for feasibility study and joint venture partner search. RFQ document inviting interested parties to participate in the project would be made available on STPI's website from next week. A dedicated website for the Bio-IT Park is being developed- www.stpibioitpark.in

Maran said that the need for a dedicated BIO-IT Park arises from the aspirations of India to become a global power in the Bio-IT sector. The BIO-IT sector in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 50 percent in the next few years. Hence, there is a need to develop enabling and dedicated infrastructure such as the BIO-IT Park to optimally leverage future opportunities. Establishment of integrated complexes like Bio-IT Park would also assist India to maintain leadership status in IT by enabling Indian IT companies to move up in their value chain and by leveraging the country's strategic resources to gain competitive edge over other emerging Bio-IT markets. Moreover, the establishment of BIO-IT Park would enhance the flow of FDI in IT & Biotechnology sector. Such an initiative would encourage entrepreneurship in the emerging knowledge intensive sectors in the country.

The BIO-IT Park will be a geographic concentration/cluster of industry (IT & life sciences), research institutions and sci-tech academia, which will endeavor to address the IT related needs of the global life sciences industry.

To start with, the Bio-IT Park would be set up in one of the six short listed locations- Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, NCR and Pune

It would have buildings, which will house companies, wet labs, dry labs, and business facilities etc. In terms of virtual networking, the park will be connected to critical resources and facilities through the Grid system. STPI being a major datacom service provider for the software exports community would provide datacom connnectivity to the tenants of the park.

The BIO-IT Park will be developed in three phases. The first phase is scheduled to be completed by 2005-06. The budgetary outlay of the park is around Rs 100 crores.

CIOL Bureau