Come April, and the focus will be on Bangalore, the biotech capital of India. During 15-17 April, the city will witness the congregation of experts from India and overseas to discuss, debate, showcase, and converge on the developments in biotechnology. The city is host to the premier and mega biotech event in Asia—Bangalore Bio. This event, promoted by the government of Karnataka and Vision Group on Biotechnology, is the third in the series so far. It may be recalled that this regular event was started in 2001 immediately after the announcement of the Millennium Biotech Policy by the state government. The event caught on with understanding of the changes taking place in biotech industry in different corners of the world. In its second effort, the event became more popular. It had representations from 12 countries and participants from 72 companies. This year too the organizers have made all arrangements to make the event more meaningful and successful. Here is a premier on what to expect.

The Knowledge Condominium
To make the event industry-friendly, apart from the regular features, Bangalore Bio 2003 has special events like Knowledge Pavilion, CEO Conclave, Awards Nite, and Bio Banquet. Special emphasis would be on promoting the knowledge base. Explaining the motif behind the event, Vivek Kulkarni, secretary, IT and Biotechnology, government of Karnataka, says, "Knowledge Pavilion, one of the new features and being planned at the tradeshow, would showcase premier research labs of India and also the top educational institutes. This is primarily conceived to push forward the case of India as the largest, scientifically trained English-speaking pool of knowledge workers. It will pave the way for the organizations and institutions to discover new opportunities of partnership with the Indian market." The highlight will definitely be the participation of eminent scientists like Dr RA Mashelkar, director general, CSIR, Prof. Vijay Raghavan, director, NCBS, and Prof. Manju Bansal, director, IBAB, besides scientists and experts from different departments of Indian Institute of Science and industry in the knowledge pavilion.

The CEO Conclave is aimed as an interactive session for over 300 top-level executives from the industry. While the Awards Nite program would be an acknowledgement forum for the best efforts in the event in the form of awards for best stall design, creative display of products, and services among things, Bio Banquet would be the grand finale of the Bangalore Bio 2003. It will bring the curtains down to the third edition of Bangalore Bio. The organizers will place the highlights and outcomes of the event in terms of MoU's signed and investments committed during the three day meet. The fourth Bangalore Bio will also be launched at this special event. This also provides an opportunity for the overseas participants to receive the first invitations to register for the next year's event-taking place on 15-17 April.

The Business Exchange
The organizers have set up three platforms - investor, technology, and collaborations — at B2B forum for the convenience of the trade delegates to close the deals. The structured opportunities will provide the corporate, who wish to finalize collaborations, technology transfer, marketing and trade, investment deals.

Considering that every month, one biotech company sets up shop in Bangalore, Bio Investor 2003 will serve as platform for providing opportunities for investors looking for attractive investment opportunities among the presentations made at this forum. The Technology Transfer 2003 enable will technologists from India and abroad to present a preview of their latest technologies, and also take a look at other noteworthy technologies showcased. This is one of the hottest areas going about, namely, the scope for innovative technologies in the vast, and emerging market of India in areas such as agri-biotech, bioinformatics and others. The Collaboration 2003 would provide the right occasion for those keen on collaborative associations of various kinds — CROs wanting to provide back-end services to MNCs, manpower sharing.

The Think Tank
Apart from business deals, Bangalore Bio will provide an opportunity to expand the horizon of biotech knowledge. The conference will be the virtual think talk of new ideas for profitable growth in today's hyper competitive biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare markets. The technical sessions ranging from platform technologies to informatics and IPR to clinical development and drug discovery and development provides delegates the opportunity to interact with speakers and analysts.

Experts from USA, Israel, Singapore, France, Germany, India will speak on topics from stem cell research to clinical research and trials, managing IP in new age to product development from lab to consumer, GM crops, biotechnology in India etc.

The concurrent three-day conference of Bangalore Bio 2003 at the sylvan surroundings of Indian Institute of Science will feature over 50 international speakers deliberating on a variety of topics. Some of the speakers expected at the conference include Marcel Rosencweiz, GPC-Biotec, Germany, Geoffery Dunbar, USA, Dr Raefelle Palminteri, Wyeth, UK, Dr John Kolthammer, Dr Stelios Papoundolous, Dr Chetan Khosla, Dr Martine Clozel, Switzerland, Gladys Mirandah, Singapore.

Vivek Kulkarni said that early preparations have helped to get expert speakers to lead the conference sessions. This has made it possible for the delegates to plan their schedules well in advance.

Participant's Paradise
The last year's success and recognition has pulled in more state and country participation to the trade show. It will unfurl the chance for the companies and their associates to meet at one place. The show has been categorized into bio-countries, bio-states, bio-instrumentation, bioprocessing, VCs and investment pavilion. The certificate from the US Commercial Services, the endorsement from the Trade Commission of Denmark and Republique Francaise and approval by the India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO) have provided support to the government of Karnataka and Vision Group in selling the event. And also helped in attracting more delegates, exhibitors and participants to this event. Vivek Kulkarni said that six states, 22 countries, 150 exhibitors have confirmed their participation.

"We are expecting about 200 delegates and nine country delegations, 25,000 trade visitors and 30,000 public visitors which is more than last year's participation and visits," he added.

The countries from which biotech companies have since confirmed attending Bangalore Bio 2003 include France, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Norway, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, USA, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, Uruguay, Ireland and South Korea, UK, China, Hungary, New Zealand.

Vivek Kulkarni maintained that recognizing the opportunity, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Orissa, Chandigarh and Tamil Nadu have confirmed participation at the tradeshow. Kerala, Chattisgarh at Punjab are likely to confirm.With the road laid out for a perfect zone, Bangalore Bio 2003 is all set to be India's best platform to showcase its rapid growth in biotechnology to the world.

Narayan Kulkarni