The 11th BioSpectrum Awards Nite, which was held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Bangalore on December 20, 2013, saw participation from around 300 industry leaders. The ceremony kick-started with lighting of the lamp by Dr K VijayRaghavan, secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India; Dr M K Bhan, former secretary, DBT; Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director, Biocon; Dr SD Ravetkar, executive director, Serum Insti- tute of India; and Mr Narayanan Suresh, group editor, BioSpectrum.

The most-spoken about life science industry awards ceremony, which was eloquently hosted by Ms Sheetal Sukhija, assistant editor, BioSpectrum, was then followed by a panel discussion consisting of imminent personalities such as Dr VijayRaghavan; Dr Bhan; Dr Ravetkar, Dr Ma- jumdar-Shaw; Dr Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director, Bharat Biotech; Mr Ajay Bharadwaj, CEO and founder, Anthem Biosciences; Mr GS Krishnan, regional president (India), Novozymes; Dr PM Murali, president, Association of Biotech Led Enterprises (ABLE); Dr KK Narayanan, managing director, Metahelix; and Mr Narayanan Suresh. The panel discussed the opportunities and challenges posed by the Indian market. Apart from the regulatory hurdles facing the industry, several other obstacles such as providing ample food and nutrition and efficient and clean biofuels to the country, were also dis- cussed by the panel.

The BioSpectrum Awards Nite saw accolades being given in various categories, including, BioSpectrum Lifetime Achievement Award; BioSpectrum Person of the Year Award; BioSpectrum Leadership Award; BioSpectrum En-trepreneur of the Year; BioSpectrum BioPharma Product of the Year; and BioSpectrum Diagnostics Product of the Year. Furthermore, special awards in collaboration with the Association of Biotech Led Enterprises (ABLE) were also given to several industry stalwarts during the event. (Photos of all award winners are on the next page).

Dr K VijayRaghavan, who delivered the keynote address, spoke about the potential of applying biotechnology to ad- dress the problems of the society. He said that we need to make sure that the current progress leads to the creation of new avenues for the society. While speaking about the challenges being faced by the industry, he said that the solution lies in linking basic biology to modern biology. "Tomorrow if we have increased funding, we will see in- crease in the absorption capacity as well," he added.

Mr Suresh said that, "This year's BioSpectrum awardees have the unique distinction of developing vaccines and therapeutic production using biotechnology tools to meet the specific demands of India's poor patients and make these wonders of modern biotech affordable to the masses globally too."