North India’s 1st Biotech Park/Incubator Launched; Aims To Produce 25 Biotech Startups in A Year

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The Biotech Park to act as hub for incubation of new ideas and will support the Agri-entrepreneurs, Startups, Progressive farmers, scientists & scholars not only from J&K, but from neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

After launching North India’s first big space centre in March this year, union minister Dr. Jitendra Singh has inaugurated North India’s first Industrial Biotech Park Ghatti, Kathua, Jammu. The Biotech Park would act as hub for incubation of new ideas and will act as a robust platform to support the Agri-entrepreneurs, Startups, Progressive farmers, scientists, scholars and students not only from Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh but also from nearby States of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

"Kathua is, because of its resource richness with diversity as well as its geographical location, destined to be North India's StartUp destination.," the minister said.

This comes within a week after BioRRAP — a Single National Portal for Biotech researchers and Startups, was launched.

The newly launched biotech park will carry out research on biodiversity, medicinal and aromatic plants of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, and it will also promote green category businesses.

Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the biotechnology park at Kathua has a potential to produce 25 startups in a year which will be among its great contributions to this region. Dr. Singh informed that with the unlocking of space technology in India under PM Narendra Modi, sixty startups have been established in only one and a half year, Onkar Singh, the young scientist from Jammu present today here is among the best examples of it.

The Biotech Parks of J&K are among 9 Biotechnology Parks supported by Department of Biotechnology (DBT)Govt. of India's  Ministry of Science & Technology, in various States.

"Under PM Narendra Modi without any regional bias, the UT of Jammu and Kashmir has seen a new dawn of development in education, health infrastructure, science and technology. The establishment of AIIMS, IIM, IIT, IIMC, Space Centre at Central University of Jammu, Highway villages, Express Corridor, Atal Setu, Mega-Quintal Seed Processing Plants, Medical Colleges some of which have been established in Kathua are some of the national level development projects J&K has seen in last eight years," said the minister.

In addition to this biotech park in Jammu, there are two more Industrial Biotech Parks comin up in the region — one at Ghatti, Kathua, Jammu and other in Handwara, Kashmir. These are jointly funded by DBT  and Jammu & Kashmir Science, Technology & Innovation Council.The work on these Biotech parks was started in February 2019. Notably, the J&K region already has CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, (CSIR-IIIM), which has been entrusted with the responsibility of implementation of this project.

DBT has established Biotechnology Parks/Incubators across the country to translate research into products and services by providing necessary infrastructure support. These Biotechnology Parks offer facilities to Scientists, and Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) for technology incubation, technology demonstration and pilot plant studies for accelerated commercial development of Biotechnology.

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