Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt of India

A not-for-profit Section 8, Schedule B, Public Sector Enterprise, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India as an interface agency to strengthen and empower the emerging Biotech enterprise to undertake strategic research and innovation, addressing nationally relevant product development needs.

The North East Region (NER) of India is a biological treasure trove that has not been fully explored. There are, for instance, around 800 medicinal plants and herbs in a remote area of Sikkim alone, their properties known to only a fast vanishing population of local shamans, and their active ingredients largely uncharacterised. Occupying just eight per cent of the country's geographical area, the region is home to about 50 per cent of its entire floristic wealth. Biotechnological research & development work in NER holds the promise of yielding highly profitable patents on endemic specie

The launch of "Brucella Free Villages" was announced for implementation on pilot scale in 50 villages covering 10 states. Brucellosis is zoonotic disease and causes economic losses of about ` 28,000 crores per year. Participants from 26 countries deliberated on brucellosis challenges in The International Conference organized by DBT incollaboration with ICAR during Nov 2017-19. Three new Brucella diagnostic kits were launched.

The Department signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nobel Media AB of the Nobel foundation to bring the Nobel Prize Series to India from 2017 to 2022. The first Nobel Prize Series India 2017 was trilateral partnership among Department of Biotechnology, State Government of Gujarat and Nobel Media. The first edition of Nobel Prize series was inaugurated by Hon'ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi on January 9, 2017 at the Science City in Ahmedabad as a prelude to Vibrant Gujarat 2017.

• DBT participated in Smart India Hackathon initiated spearheaded by MHRD.
•  Seventeen problem statements were posed.
• Student teams from engineering institutions were requested to provide digital solutions.
• Thirty student teams selected problems posed by DBT.

A Statement of Intent was signed between DBT and Prakash Lab, Stanford University, USA for 'Development and Deployment of Products (Foldscope) from Prakash Lab'. The Foldscope, an extraordinary invention that creates a US$ 1 paper microscope will be made available to the most resource-constrained schools and colleges in India in an attempt to democratize curiosity driven science.

"Swachh Bharat has the backing of Biotechnology" "Swachh Bharat" has been taken up as a serious research area in the country's laboratories keeping in mind the reality that biotechnology offers immense scope to leapfrog several levels towards the objective of public hygiene and health.

An indigenous process technology and pilot scale manufacturing unit for iron fortified rice has been developed through DBT support at IIT, Kharagpur. Pilot scale manufacturing unit with100 Kg/8 h capacity has been commissioned. The rice is fortified through a process called extrusion in which dough made of rice flour, vitamin and mineral mix, and water, is passed through an extruder and cut into grain-like structures that resemble rice grains. This iron fortified rice premix matches with the normal rice kernel in shape and size, and when mixed with normal rice in the ratio of 1:100 it provi

The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) is in collaboration with drug major Sun Pharma to use the recombinant EDIII-based sub-unit dengue vaccine candidate to develop an injectible vaccine that protects against all four dengue strains are endemic to India. ICGEB has also developed the first 1 day Dengue Diagnostic Test and more than 5 million tests were sold in 2016.