The opening ceremony of the 24^th edition of Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) was conducted as a hybrid event on 17th November. Organized by the Department of Electronics, IT, Bt and S&T of the Government of Karnataka and Software Technology Parks of India - Bengaluru, the Summit was inaugurated by the Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu. With the theme of ‘Driving The Next’, the three day summit is scheduled from 17^th to 19^th November, 2021.

Naidu, while acknowledging the recent technological disruptions in many areas, stressed that the real potential of technology can be unleashed when there are significant improvements in sectors such as agriculture, education, healthcare, governance and climate change.

Dr Kiran Majumdar Shaw, Chairperson Vision Group on Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka spoke on the need to push biopharma manufacturing and research in India.

"The industry body ABLE is proposing a standalone PLI scheme for biopharma manufacturing. As we know, today the Indian biological drugs account for 80 per cent of the drugs pipeline and already account for more than 40 per ent of the global pharma market. It is this high capital investment that the government needs to support to expand the biomanufacturing capability and capacity. If we do not implement the PLI scheme for biopharma manufacturing eminently, we might see other competing nations deny us of leadership in the future", she said.

"Another very import policy decision that we are discussing with the government is the research linked incentive based on investment linked tax breaks as well as fiscal incentives based on skill development, intellectual property and academic partnerships. Research and innovation are the cornerstones of non-linear economic growth. Indian companies need to significantly increase R&D investment, and academic research needs to generate intellectual value through licensable intellectual property", she added.

The Biotech Track at BTS2021 is curated under a theme- ‘Next wave is Innovation’ and will focus on key topics like Re-Igniting Innovation Creating Moderna & MRNA Technologies In conceiving Vaccines, Investing in Nextgen Medtech & Diagnostics, Gene-Editing, Oncology: Innovative Treatments And Biomarkers, Vaccine Equity, Showcasing India’s Vaccine Leadership, Cellular Immunotherapies, Latest Innovations In Cell Therapy, Secondary Agriculture and Regulatory.