Biotechnology: A sector of opportunities

Dr. Manmohan Sharma
and Dr. R.K. Salgotra

Biotechnology, in recent years, has created unprecedented opportunities in almost all the sectors. It has become the world’s fastest growing and the most rapidly changing technology. Advances in high throughput technologies mainly genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and next generation sequencing have enabled to provide insight into molecular basis of growth, development and responses to environmental signals. The development of new genotyping methodologies and platforms, and the development of bioinformatics databases and software tools, provide even more exciting opportunities for molecular research in the 21st century. Plant biotechnology has greatly complimented the efforts of agriculture scientists to assess the diversity in germplasm, identify candidate genes controlling important agronomic traits and precisely transfer them to existing crop varieties to enhance their value in terms of yield, quality and host plant resistance.
Biotechnology is an interdisciplinary field that comprises of technologies using plant cells, animal cells, biological molecules, molecular biology processes and genetic engineering for applications in agriculture, veterinary and medicine, besides food, fermentation and the pharmaceutical industries. The technologies include the use of genomics, proteomics, genetic transformations, enzyme engineering, culture of cells and tissues, fusion of animal cells or plant protoplast, the regeneration of whole plants from single cells and the large-scale fermentation processes for welfare of mankind. Biotechnology offers seemingly unlimited opportunities to researchers to produce useful organisms with desirable properties that were not previously found in nature.
Modern biotechnology holds immense promise to address the challenges of food, health and livelihood security without jeopardizing the global natural resource base. Application of biotechnological tools for augmenting production and quality of food, fruits and vegetable crops; forest, medicinal and aromatic plants; fiber crops and their products; aggrandize the quality and productivity of livestock; development of vaccines and diagnostic kits for farm animal health care; genetic enhancement of mulberry and non mulberry silkworm races and host plants, etc. The advent of high throughput genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and genome editing based technologies has shifted the paradigm to address the biological questions in novel ways and helped in devising new strategies to improve the crop and animal productivity. With the inception of huge genomics information it has now become possible to use comparative and functional genomics based approaches to understand gene functions and study simultaneous interactions of various genes governing traits of economic importance. With advances in next generation sequencing technologies and DNA based marker systems, breeding of plants and animals have become more précised to achieve desired response. The farmers are looking at the genetically modified seeds, planting material, biofertilizers and biopesticides as more viable alternate approaches for investments and increasing productivity. The introduction of various in vitro culture techniques has revolutionized the horticulture sector in India in recent years. Biotechnology is labeled as the sunrise sector with lot of employment prospects for qualified biotechnologists in several fields including agriculture, veterinary, medical, microbial, marine and sericulture sectors.
Biotechnology offers diverse career options to the graduates and post graduates. Its talent base is among the best and the brightest. Many international institutes/laboratories and MNCs attract the best talent for promoting their R&D activities.  Several policy initiatives have been taken in India to create excellent human resource base, build up the requisite infrastructure, identity and set up centers of excellence, support R&D and manufacturing activities to meet the demands of growing population. Qualified biotechnologists find job prospects in both Government and Private Sectors. The government organizations such as DBT, DST, ICAR, ICMR, CSIR, IITs, AIIMS, Universities, Research Institutes, Colleges, Laboratories and Industries offer employment to Biotechnology professionals for undertaking assignments in research, teaching, training, management and entrepreneurship development. In private sector there are over 150 modern biotech companies in India which have their own R & D units. Multinational Companies like Mahyco, Monsanto, Syngenta, ProAgro, Advanta, etc. are making huge investments in GM crops and offer biotechnology professionals with handsome pay-packages.
Generating highly skilled human resource is a challenging task for the institutes of higher education. Strong academic base along with intensive and updated research and practical trainings are essential to generate human resource matching international standards. Several opportunities exist for students pursuing education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Students can qualify fellowships tests conducted by ICAR, ICMR, CSIR, JNU, DST, DBT and  many other state and central universities. At postgraduate level students having qualified fellowships such as NET, JRF, SRF, INSPIRE, GATE, RGNF, etc. are encouraged to seek admissions in Indian universities. At international level several universities and organizations attract the best talent in biotechnology and enhance their research efforts.
(The authors are faculty members at School of Biotechnology, SKUAST-Jammu)

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