Dr Renu Swarup has been appointed as the Secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT) after Prof K Vijay Raghavan. She had been previously serving as the Senior Adviser to DBT. After his retirement as DBT Secretary, Prof Vijay Raghavan has been appointed as the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.

Dr. Renu Swarup also holds charge of Managing Director, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) incorporated by the Government of India to nurture and promote innovation research in the Biotech Enterprise with special focus on Start-ups and SMEs. Through Biotechnology translational research and industry academia partnerships she has supported more than 1000 Start-ups and Entrepreneurs and nearly 500 small companies for innovation research and product development.

A PhD in Genetics and Plant Breeding, Dr. Renu Swarup completed her Post Doctoral at The John Innes Centre, Norwich UK, under Commonwealth Scholarship and returned to India to take up the assignment of a Science Manager in the DBT, Ministry of Science and Technology, in 1989.

As a Science Manager, issues related to policy planning and implementations are a part of her assignment. She was actively engaged in formulation of the Biotechnology Vision in 2001, National Biotechnology Development Strategy in 2007 and Strategy II, 2015-20 as the Member Secretary of the Expert Committee.