Kapil Sibal is Minister for Science and Technology

Kapil Sibal

Kapil Sibal, a noted lawyer and additional solicitor general of India between December 1989 and December 1990, is the new Cabinet Minister for Science and Technology. He sees biotechnology as the next big opportunity for India. "Biotechnology can become the next booming sector. Regulations on this sector should be liberalized. With our scientific base and cheap manufacturing set-ups, we can do brilliantly with foreign collaboration," Sibal said. He also wants to focus on bringing FDI into the biotechnology sector.

Sibal is one of India's brilliant trial lawyers. After graduating from St Stephen's College and studying law at Harvard Law School, Sibal first entered the Parliament in July 1998 when he was elected to the Rajya Sabha to represent Bihar. An active member of the bar associations, Sibal has also been the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association for three terms. He was the Congress parliamentary party secretary for the two-year term from August 2000 and a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on stock market scam set up in April 2001, besides being on board of House committees on business advisory and home affairs.

Mahendra Dashora heads AccuRex Biomedical

Mahendra J Dashora now looks after the entire operations of AccuRex Biomedical as a managing director of the company. Dashora took charge as the managing director with the demise of AJ Thakur. Earlier he was working as a technical director of the company. His 20 years of work experience as an entrepreneur and a biochemist has made AccuRex Biomedical a Rs 10 crore company with a vast user base for indigenous products.

Dashora joined research in the field of neurotransmitters after completing his masters in biochemistry from MS University, Baroda. But soon he realized that India is in need of people who can indigenously manufacture clinical chemistry reagents for easy procurement with better economy. Initially, in 1985, he set up a partnership organization to launch routine clinical chemistry reagents for semi-automated analyzer based pathology laboratories. Then in 1994 the organization turned into a private limited company and expanded its market, networking across the Indian subcontinent.

Priya joins SIRO

Priya Pawar

Priya Pawar has joined SIRO Clinpharm Pvt Ltd as manager, business development. At SIRO she will be

responsible for business development in domestic and international markets, marketing promotions and client interfacing. She joined SIRO in the place of Dr Mohanish Anand who has left SIRO to join Pfizer.

Before joining SIRO, Pawar was responsible for business development in SRL Ranbaxy's Clinical Research Services division. During her tenure of a little over four years, she handled responsibilities ranging from developing the domestic and international markets, exploring new business avenues to strategic planning. She has masters in management with specialization in marketing from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies with BSc in chemistry from Mumbai University.

Indian scientists present papers at ISBA symposium

The 13th International Symposium on the "Biology of Actinomycetes" (ISBA) was held in Melbourne, Australia, followed by a two-day workshop organized by the World Federation of Culture Collections on Commercial Applications. During the seminar Indian scientists made presentations too. Dr Rup Lal's group made a presentation on genetics/taxonomy of A. mediterranei; Dr Srivastava and KK Mishra from Banaras Hindu University presented on Streptomyces causing potato scab disease; and Dr BN Ganguli, chair professor, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, talked on a new thrombolytic enzyme "actinokinase" from Streptomyces megasporus during the symposium. Dr Shinji Miyadoh of Japan was honored with a lifetime achievement award. Dr Rup Lal is from University of Delhi and has been awarded biotechnology overseas associateship for the year 1999-2000 by DBT and has also been a member of Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation, DBT. Dr BN Ganguli has been in the governing body of Interactive School of Health Affairs and a Western region team leader of the National Microbial Resources Project of DBT.