With or without the Centre
While the Union government has not a separate policy on biotechnology, several state governments have gone ahead and announced their biotech policies. All these are attempts to promote industrial biotech and deal mainly with infrastructure and investments. The states see in biotech the kind of economic boom brought about by the information technology (IT) sector in Bangalore. Quite understandably, the serious issues are given short shrift. In fact, most of the states' mandatory state biotechnology coordination committees and district level committees (that are at the core of India's GM regulatory mechanism) don't function, though 15 states claim to have formed them. Here's a sample:
Andhra Pradesh
In April 2001, the state's department of industries and commerce released the 32-page biotechnology policy of the state, entitled Beyond Tomorrow. Writes the chief minister: "It is my belief that biotechnology can benefit, in several ways, all sections of the society but more so the very poor...' The document talks of declaring a 600 sq km area the Genome Valley. Biosafety is mentioned a total of four times.
Karnataka
The state has nothing short of a 22-page Millennium Biotech Policy. Its stated objectives are "to spread awareness about the investment opportunities in biotechnology...', "to sustain and maintain the present pre-eminent position of Karnataka and Bangalore in the field of biotechnology' and "to outline a set of incentives and concessions for the biotechnology industry to attract investments to the state'. In fact, the state has a single department of biotech and IT.
Tamil Nadu
The state's policy was released by the industries department. It recognises that the biotech regulatory framework "is largely controlled by central institutions' and also mentions that "the role of the state government is currently restricted to institutional biosafety committee and district level committee which largely involves inspection and monitoring of field trials and co-coordinating with central ministers from time to time'. No mention of the creation of the committees.
Maharashtra
The Maharashtra Biotechnology Policy, 2001, issued by the state's industrial development corporation, "provides the broad direction for the orderly growth of the industry in the state while defining various initiatives and incentives for the promotion of the sector'. It is "essentially meant to see that the social and economic benefits of the biotechnology revolution will be available to every citizen of the state'.
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