India to launch Bio E-3 policy to attract ₹10k-cr investment
1 min read . Updated: 29 Mar 2023, 11:23 PM IST
PremiumGreen growth is one of the seven top priorities of the Union budget 2023-24 for a green industrial and economic transition, environmentally friendly agriculture and sustainable energy.
New Delhi: The Union government is working on a policy to boost biotechnology-based manufacturing for green growth, a top government official said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to announce the policy shortly, Rajesh Gokhale, secretary, department of biotechnology said in an interview. The government aims to reduce dependence on petrochemicals in multiple sectors and attract over ₹10,000 crore investments through the Bio-E3 (biotechnology for environment, economy and employment) policy.
The future of the country will be decided on biology-based technologies, Gokhale said, adding the programme will be called bio-manufacturing. He pointed to the success of India’s vaccine industry and its vast capacity to manufacture vaccines.
“Obviously, it happened due to huge government support and funding. Now, biotechnology should be strategically implemented," Gokhale said. As per the plan, production of agri-food, veterinary products, paints and dyes will be done with the help of biotechnology.
In India, 70,000-80,000 molecules are made by the chemical industry, most of it from the polluting petrochemicals industry. These can be converted into microbial-derived forms. “In the next 5-10 years, we are aiming that all these should come from biological technology resources. This will improve the quality of life and the products will be of very good quality," Gokhale said. New technologies may utilize biological processes; like futuristic batteries that make use of viruses, he said.
The department is separately working to address plastic and micro-plastic pollution in a holistic way, and provide biological alternatives to single-use plastics. This also supports scalable biotechnological interventions for the abatement of plastic and microplastic pollution.
Green growth is one of the seven top priorities of the Union budget 2023-24 for a green industrial and economic transition, environmentally friendly agriculture and sustainable energy.
It will also generate a large number of green jobs across the country.
The government has outlined three pillars for green growth and energy transmission. First, increasing the production of renewable energy; second, reducing the use of fossil fuel in the economy; and finally, rapidly moving towards a gas-based economy in the country.