The dawn of the new millennium paved the way for revolutionizing information technology, which changed the way humans lived, communicated, and did business. Coupled with that, Biotechnology, in particular, is altering the course of healthcare and the way diseases are diagnosed and treated.

It is expected that in the coming years, there will be an increase in biotech parks and incubation centers in India, where budding entrepreneurs and small firms will find the support to thrive. Here is an overview of India's iconic Biotech Parks and Incubators.

Biotech Parks 

Genome Valley

Conceived in 1999, Genome Valley (GV) is located in the Northern periphery of Hyderabad State in Southern India. It comprises of knowledge parks, special economic zones (SEZs), multi-tenanted lab space buildings, incubation facilities, office spaces and support facilities.

It has an array of companies in the realm of agri-biotech, CROs, biopharma, vaccine manufacturing, regulatory and testing.

The cluster has over 100 lifescience companies. The multi-tenanted lab space buildings and incubation facilities provide growth to small, medium, and large enterprises, including start-ups.

Genome Valley is also known as the 'Vaccine Hub of India', since leading vaccine producers like Biological E, Bharat Biotech and Globion Bio are within the cluster, along with Shantha Biotech and Indian Immunologicals.

It has two prominent knowledge parks - Alexandria Knowledge Park and IKP Knowledge Park.

IKP Knowledge Park

The IKP knowledge park is India's innovative lifescience park facilitating business-driven R&D for more than 10 years now.

Spread across 200 acres in genome valley, Hyderabad, in the State of Andhra Pradesh, the park's main objective is to build an environment for innovation and growth of lifesciences.

The park boasts of ready-to-use multi-tenanted modular wet laboratory blocks (innovation corridors) with in-built flexibility around common, shared facilities and support services, as well as developed land for customized R&D facilities.

All the operations and maintenance of IKP is ISO 9001-2008 certified. The infrastructure services include electricity, telecommunication, refuse disposal, conference facility, meeting rooms, cafeteria and gymnasium.

The IKP knowledge park has promoted 65 companies so far, and is currently associated with 47 of them.

The park has been receiving support from the State and the Central governments in India. The park has also received partial funding from National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science and Technology (DST) to establish the Life Science Incubator, and from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India, to establish a Virtual Information Center.

The park is supported by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for augmenting its lifescience incubator facilities.

Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) has supported IKP with an ignition grant.

TICEL Bio Park

Situated in the Southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu, Chennai-based TICEL Bio Park is a 5-acred landmark lifesciences biotech R&D park, which is a unit of Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO).

The park's co-promoters include Indian Bank, Karur Vysya Bank and Indian Overseas Bank.

The park's design and technical parameters were provided by Cornell University, USA.

The park has varied facilities including a bioresource center which is under consideration. It also has a tenancy area, and training centers.

The TICEL Park was set up with a capital of US $12.5 million and has national and international clients.

Bio360 - Life Science Park

Bio360-Life Science Park is Southern Indian State Kerala's upcoming lifesciences park, focusing on facilitating the Bio-IT and Nano technology sectors in India.

The park is located in the village of Veiloor, Thiruvananthapuram, and will be a geographic cluster of biotechnology, nanotechnology and lifesciences industry, research institutions and sci-tech academia.

The park offers space for large and integrated Bio-IT companies to set up their organizations, and has ready to occupy built-up modules focusing on human health.

The park's unique selling point will be its Incubation Center (IC) and the Technology Development Center (TDC).

The incubation center will provide critical infrastructure facilities to start-up Bio-IT companies and assist them in the initial years (incubation period) until they are self-sustainable.

According to the park, once the start-up matures, it will move out and venture on its own.

The Technology Development Centre (TDC) will facilitate small and medium-sized IT players, inventors and entrepreneurs in the State to start, expand or make their business more competitive in the marketplace.

To begin with, a state-of-the-art, new generation biotechnology incubation centre is being promoted by Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), and Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI) in the park.

Nationally and internationally-renowned R&D institutions in lifesciences and biotechnology sector including Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Regional Cancer Centre (RCC), Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), and National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) have also come together along with KSIDC and TBGRI.

The project cost of the incubation center, excluding the land, is estimated at INR 300 million, which includes INR 180 million for the first phase.

The incubation center will offer the technical know-how of nationally and internationally reputed R&D institutions in the lifesciences and bio-technology sector.

Golden Jubilee Biotech Park for Women Society

The Golden Jubilee Biotech Park for women was established with a mission to provide opportunities for professionally qualified women, to pursue a career of remunerative self-employment through the organization of environment-friendly biotechnological enterprises.

The biotech park and its activities are closely related to the objective of building a rural-urban linkage.

The park is situated in Siruseri village in Kanchipuram in the Southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu, and surrounded by other villages like Pudupakkam and Mambakkam.

The raw materials required by the enterprises within the park are directly sourced from the farmers. Thus, the park provides a platform for utilizing the produce of rural farmers, and converting them into products for the urban market.

The M S Swaminathan Research Foundation plays a key role in linking the farmers and their produce with the biotech park through self-help groups.

The park has developed lab facilities for providing quality testing and training programs. It has also been successfully conducting short and long-term training programs for college students as a means of providing much needed hands on experience, and to generate revenue streams for the park.

The biotech park plans to develop this into an entrepreneurial facility. Women scientists with managerial skills and capable of making small-scale investments, are to independently take up the functioning of the lab.

Guwahati Biotech Park

Situated in the State of Assam in India, the government of Assam has allotted land measuring 17 acres to Guwahati Biotech Park.

Facilities include eight modular laboratories, specialized and support facilities. Interim facilities have been created at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, in a building rented out to the state government for the incubator.

Bangalore Biotech Park

Currently, the park is under construction with 25 incubation suites ranging from 200 sq ft to 700 sq ft.

Located in the Southern State of Karnataka, there is a plan to build a common instrumentation facility, mammalian and plant tissue culture, dark room, cold room, utilities, animal house, chemical store, cafeteria, meeting rooms, and conference rooms.

KINFRA Biotech Park

The Biotechnology Incubation Centre (BTIC) by Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) has been set up at Ernakulum, to provide incubation facilities to industries.

It is located in the Southern State of Kerala. The labs are equipped with commercial facilities and six units are under construction.

A 20 acre land is available for lease to companies. A Project Advisory Committee (PAC) would help the Project Implementation Committee (PIC) in the selection of equipment, infrastructure provided to each lab and for the selection of tenants in BTIC.

Bio Pharma-IT Park

The facility is being developed at Andharua in Bhubaneswar, in the Eastern State of Odisha, on a land parcel of 64.61 acres.

The park area has been demarcated and walled off, and utilities have been provided.

The construction of the building for the incubator is yet to begin. Focus is on the training program and on building a good manufacturing practices (GMP) quality facility.

Biotechnology Incubation Centre

The Centre is located up in the Northern India. A few years ago, a biotechnology park project was sanctioned to the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), government of Himachal Pradesh, Shimla.

The government of Himachal Pradesh constituted an executive committee and Society for Promotion of Biotechnology and Biobusiness (SPBB) as a nodal agency for implementing the Biotech Park Project.

Establishment of the Biotechnology Park is under way and discussions were held for setting up of infrastructure and for identification of prospective investors.

Lucknow Biotech Park (LBP)

The Uttar Pradesh-based LBP started operations in 2006. The park has generated employment for about 200 people.

To date, 7-8 companies have graduated from the incubator and another nine companies are under incubation.

The park has National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accreditation for its analytical facilities and provides service to many agro-industries in the region.

The plant tissue culture facility is also certified under DBT-BCIL certification program. The park has an extraction unit, a bioinformatics unit and a bio-fuel unit.

The park is also hosting HRD programs for research scholars and a biotech finishing school.

Punjab Biotechnology Park

Located in Dera Bassi at Chandigarh, in the Northern State of Punjab, it focuses on technology transfer, collaborative research, exchange of scientific manpower and company-to-company business relationship in agricultural and environmental biotechnology and bioprocessing.

It has all the basic facilities including water, electricity, with tax exemption office, R&D lab, and sewage treatment facility.

Shapoorji Pallonji Biotech Park

This park is located at Shamirpet in the Southern State of Hyderabad. The park is a joint venture between the government of Andhra Pradesh and Shapoorji Pallonji Co Pvt Ltd. It is spread over 300 acres.

It has a state-of-the-art infrastructure for lifescience research, particularly for biopharmaceuticals, training and manufacturing activities, with all basic facilities of road, power, space, and telecommunications.

It has attracted more than 15 corporate clients who are interested in setting up their R&D centers.

Jalna Biotech Park

Located in the city of Aurangabad, in the Western State of Maharashtra, this park was set up by Wockhardt.

It consists of a 107 hectare land. It has manufacturing facilities for active pharmaceutical ingredients, biopharmaceuticals, R&D center, effluent treatment plant, a corporate office, warehouse and a residential and recreational complex. It provides employment to an estimated 2000 people.

Proposed Biotech Parks:

â–  Biotech Park, Konark, Chandrabhaga, Odisha.
â–  Marine Biotech Park, Ganjam, Odisha
â–  Boranda Biotech Park, Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
â–  Herbal Pharma Biotech Park, Betma, Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
â–  Ansals API Biotech Park, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
â–  Pantnagar Biotech Park, Haldi, Uttaranchal.
â–  Solan Biotech Park, Himachal Pradesh.
â–  Jogindernagar Biotech Park, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.

Incubators

Startup Oasis

Located in the Northern India, Startup Oasis is a Jaipur City-based incubation center, set-up at the joint initiative of RIICO, Rajasthan's premiere industrial promotion organization, and the Center for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad.

Venture Center

The BioIncubator at Venture Center, located in the West Indian city of Pune, aims to nucleate and nurture technology and knowledge-based enterprises leveraging knowledge in the areas of biotechnology including biopharma, agri-biotech, industrial biotech, and clean technology, biomedical engineering, devices, diagnostics, biomass value addition, renewable fuels, chemicals, materials, bioinformatics, biomedical services and related disciplines.

NCL Innovations

NCL Innovations was founded in 2007 as a new resource center of the National Chemical Laboratory, located in Pune city, to champion the cause of technology innovations within the organization.

Indian Angel Network (IAN)

Based in the Northern city of New Delhi, India, IAN in an equity-based business incubator center that gives priority to ventures in the areas of healthcare, gaming and animation cloud computing, retail, mobile VAS, media and entertainment, alternative energy, education and clean technology.

It has been established with the support of the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) and the Department of Science & Technology (DST) of the government of India.

GSF M-Accelerator

Started in 2012, India-based GSF M-Accelerator is a specialized accelerator program for mobile start-ups.

Functioning as a 'super-accelerator' by design, GSF M-Accelerator offers founders four months to make the kind of progress ordinarily accomplished in six to eight months.