The concept of bringing together research institutions, as per the National Biotechnology Development Strategy, was aimed at making India a world-class bio-manufacturing hub. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has released no fresh funds to any of the four Biotech Science clusters in the last 19 months, the response to a Right to Information (RTI) plea filed by The Indian Express has revealed. This, even as Indian scientists have been facing an uphill task of studying viruses and suggesting to governments scientific solutions for Covid pandemic management.
The ambitious plan for setting up Biotech clusters was first floated in the Union Budget of 2014. Once sanctioned, the DBT was to release funds to the tune of nearly Rs 100-150 crore between 2018 and 2021 to each cluster, following which the future course of each cluster would be decided after a review.
The clusters — an union of multiple scientific institutions in a geographical region — are supposed to act as a platform where scientists could join hands in studying areas of common interest and emerging importance. The clusters would offer high-end equipments and facilities for collaboration. Biotech Clusters with specific areas were proposed in Bengaluru (Karnataka), Kalyani (West Bengal), Faridabad (Haryana), Mohali (Punjab) and Pune (Maharashtra).
The concept of bringing together research institutions, as per the National Biotechnology Development Strategy, was aimed at making India a world-class bio-manufacturing hub. In addition to bio-clusters, the DBT also envisioned setting up bio-incubators, technology transfer centres and more. As per the Assessment of Indian Biotechnology Landscape report of 2019, the Indian biotechnology industry’s annual growth rate stood at 14.7 per cent. In 2017, India contributed about 3 per cent to the global market and remains one of the 12 major countries contributing in this field, according to the report.
While the Bengaluru, Kalyani and Faridabad clusters have become fully operational, the Mohali cluster is yet to be established.
Even the Pune cluster, inaugurated in August 2019 by Dr Renu Swarup, the then DBT secretary, is yet to take off. To be jointly run by the National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS) and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), the Pune cluster is themed around ‘Model organisms to human disease’, and aims to study diseases transmitted from organisms to humans.
Details in the RTI response revealed that the Pune cluster has, so far, received the least amount of funding among the four clusters in the last three years. Estimated to cost Rs 125 crore in total, Pune has received only one installment of Rs 19.0154 crore, which was released in 2018.
“Currently, some work using the acquired equipment are on. However, the cluster has not been performing as per what was projected. This is mainly due to lack of funds and support staff. We are not asking the DBT to release additional funds, but only what was originally sanctioned,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.
The official pointed out that if the cluster was operating at full capacity, the region’s scientific community would have been better positioned internationally, gained access to certain technologies currently unavailable in India, sent samples abroad and done world-class research. This, specially, when the cluster is mandated to perform studies on diseases transmitted from organisms to humans and would have been extremely crucial in the time of Covid-19 pandemic, caused by a virus whose origin is still being debated.
The Pune cluster’s future remains uncertain as the staff associated with it have been fired. “As the funds dried up, it was becoming difficult to pay salaries to the specially hired staff for operations of the Pune Biocluster. So, their employment contracts had to be terminated,” said the official. The RTI reply states that a total of 13 persons — nine at the NCCS and four at IISER, Pune — were hired for the biocluster. They were hired either as lab associates, managers or assistants, facility in-charges or technical associates.
Using the initial installment, the two institutions could only procure some equipment and erect basic infrastructure. NCCS procured two equipments — a Spectral Confocal Workstation and a Spinning Disk High Resolution microscope — at a cumulative cost of over Rs 6 crore. IISER, Pune, purchased seven components worth over Rs 9 crore. This included Whole Animal Imaging System and a hihg-speed, 6 laser, flow sorter with BSL – 2 containment.
While the Pune cluster got only one installment sent in 2018, the Kalyani cluster received funds in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Till March 2020, the Kalyani cluster received a total of Rs 52.17 crore, of which nearly all of the funds were spent on the procurement of instruments, the RTI response stated. Steered by the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), the Systems Medicine Cluster in Kalyani includes six major Kolkata-based institutions — Indian Statistical Institute, Bose Institute, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Tata Medical Centre and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research.
This cluster is responsible for deepening understanding of diseases at the level of biological systems, accelerating treatment and management of two common diseases — gingivo-buccal oral and cervical cancers. The National Capital Region Biotech Science Cluster in Faridabad is tasked to provide strategic support to national and regional research organisations in creating and integrating scientific, technical and business related frameworks. It is supposed to accelerate and translate discoveries and carry out validation and transfer of product technologies to enterprises.
The RTI details mentioned that the Faridabad cluster has received a total of Rs 32.31 crore till October last year.
Between 2018 and October 2021, the DBT has released a total sum of Rs 88 crore to the Bangalore Life Sciences Cluster. This cluster was established to build the necessary infrastructure, human resources and to enable research and innovation activities across life sciences and biotechnology domains.
Scientists pointed out that the proposed three-year period of DBT’s support was now over, thus these clusters and their future course would need serious deliberations. They cautioned that a derailment at this stage was unaffordable in the wake of newer SARS Cov2 variants emerging.
Just last week, the DBT had asked the Pune cluster to submit a detailed report, seeking its need for extension of support. This is being seen as a positive step and scientists associated with the cluster are hopeful about funds being released soon.
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