At the inauguration of the 26th edition of Bengaluru Tech Summit on 29 November 2023, Priyank Kharge, Minister for Information Technology, Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka, along with other dignitaries, unveiled the draft of Biotechnology policy 4.0, based on inputs gathered by the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) from many industry and academic experts in the State.

The new draft Karnataka Policy intends to support the concept of High-Tech Biotech Clusters (5 – 10 acres) wherein the developed industry would be encouraged to set-up their manufacturing units and support startups and SMEs with plug and play facilities.

There are plans to set-up a green-field Bio Foundry in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. The bio-foundry facility will address the growing demands of the growth-stage companies and to meet their requirements of GMP Pilot Plant & scale-up facility.

Provision of Biomanufacturing Unit Investment Subsidy of maximum Rs 10 crore, Reimbursement of up to 50% expenses incurred for procuring high end equipment’s for undertaking cutting edge R & D (upto Rs 10 lakh), reimbursement of Lease Rental for Startups and MSMEs (upto Rs 5 lakh), Employment Generation Incentive upto Rs.50,000 per fresher employed, and reimbursement of Internship Stipend upto Rs 5000 per Internee have been newly proposed.

Efforts will be now made with the support of IT BT Department, Government of Karnataka to get feedback and further inputs on the draft policy and come out soon with the futuristic Biotechnology Policy 4.0 for Karnataka.

Feedback and inputs can be sent to karbtpolicyinputs@gmail.com