The Biotech Consortium India Limited (BCIL), New Delhi celebrated its silver jubilee with fervor and festivities were on December, 19 2015 at National Institute of Immunology (NII), New Delhi. On the occasion, the union minster for science and technology, Dr Harsh Vardhan was the chief guest of the programme.

The company promoted by the department of biotechnology (DBT) and the all India financial institutions, since its inception in the year 1990, has made a significant contribution to biotechnology sector by providing valuable consultancy services to the central government, state governments, academia, research institutions and the industry.

The programme began with the welcome address by Dr V P Kamboj, chairman, BCIL and Dr Manju Sharma, former secretary, DBT who apprised the audience about the genesis of BCIL and its journey over the last 25 years.

Dr Purnima Sharma, managing director, BCIL presented the various activities of BCIL i.e. intellectual property management and technology transfer, consultancy, biosafety, capacity building and manpower development. Dr Sharma mentioned that BCIL is proactively contributing to the 'Make in India', 'Skill India' and 'Startup India' programmes by virtue of managing national programmes promoting commercialization and entrepreneurship development.

While delivering the inaugural address, the chief guest, Dr Harsh Vardhan congratulated BCIL on the occasion of silver jubilee celebrations. He appreciated the vision and mandate of BCIL towards commercialization of biotechnology and emphasized the need of organizations like BCIL to assist the various Government departments in implementation of different projects.

On this occasion, Prof K VijayRaghavan, secretary, government of India, Department of Biotechnology appreciated the strong foundation of BCIL which has been responsible for its achievements and its board of directors who have been providing the vision and direction to BCIL. He also expressed his intent in working closely with BCIL in executing other important programmes of DBT.

While addressing the gathering, Prof Ashutosh Sharma, secretary, department of science and technology (DST) congratulated BCIL and suggested that BCIL should expand its scope of activities by working with other government departments. The proposed initiatives for scale-up of technology incubators already set up across the country and conducting technology mapping/foresight studies.

The event had a participation of around 300 delegates from government, industry and academia from national and international forums.

To commemorate this special occasion, BCIL had organized special lectures on biotechnology commercialization delivered by eminent personalities from the field of science and technology - Dr Renu Swarup, senior advisor, DBT and managing director, BIRAC, Dr Balram Bhargava, professor of Cardiology and executive director, School of International Design, Dr Ram Vishwakarma, director, CSIR- Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu, Dr Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director, Bharat Biotech International and Mr Rajendra Barwale, managing director, Mahyco Seeds.

BCIL had also an exhibition of the key activities of BCIL and the Chief Guest, dignitaries and participants appreciated the achievements of BCIL.