• Agriculture (e.g. Horticulture, Forestry)
• Animal Husbandry (e.g. Dairy, Poultry, Fisheries)
• Pharma & Healthcare
• Marine
• Environment

• Development of Biotech clusters in the form of Zones / estates, development of specific parks / SEZ, specific strategic actions for development of sub sectors like Agriculture, Animal husbandry, Health, marine environment

• A special package of incentive will be offered for mega project, on case to case basis. A project making investment of Rs.100 crore or more, would be considered as mega project. This apart, Projects making investment in setting up of institutes of high end Biotechnology education and research and incurring a minimum of 50% investment on land, building, would also be treated as mega project.

• Biotechnology parks, falling in the SEZ would be exempted from paying tax and cess, while other BT units in the BT parks would be exempted from payment of stamp duty @ 50%.

• Exemption from electricity duty on captive power generation, for period of five years, under Electricity Duty act. Biotechnologies industries have been classified in the category of Continuous process Industry and have been provided exemption from power cuts.

• State government has established Gujarat Biotechnology venture fund, operated by Gujarat venture Finance limited. Provision of self certification for Biotechnology units, under Labor Laws, has also been made in this policy.

• Through the provisions of present Industrial Policy, 2003, benefit of existing incentives, pertaining to interest subsidy, financial assistance for Technology / quality up gradation, patent and product registration, ISO certification, participation in exhibition and Trade fairs, will also be available to Biotechnology units.

• The state is one of the biggest Biotech Park of the country, spread over 700 acres and to be developed in three Phases, is being developed at Savli, Vadodara. Boitech Park at Savli, Vadodara is being developed to provide key infrastructure for research, incubation and business. The Park is being developed under Public Private Partnership. Phase I of 90 acres has been developed by GIDC while Phase II & III of 600 acres is being developed under Public Private Partnership. Basic infrastructure, like roads, electricity, drainage etc has been completed in Phase I. The park uptill now has commitment of investment of around 900 crores, from biotech companies, slated to anchor in park.
• In phase I, 11 companies have been recommended for land alloment. Environment clearance for entire park has been received. Approval for 25 acres of land in Phase I has been received for SEZ.
• The private partner has been identified, through competitive bidding.
• Master planning of phase II, of the park has been completed by private partner.
• To encourage research, technology development and scaling up, state government is developing Biotech incubator with total built up area of 140,000 sqft. It provides ready to use facilities to interested biotech entrepreneurs researchers and companies on rental basis. The technical designing has been done by private partner. PMC has been selected. The incubator is planned to be developed with estimated cost of Rs. 50.0 crores in phased manner during the year 2009-10.

• To facilitate the growth of agriculture Biotechnology, harness the specific agriculture strength of the state and attract investments, Agri-Biotechnology Park, has been planned. Location feasibility study has been completed and land has been reserved.

• To facilitate the development of marine Biotechnology research, services and investments in this area, Marine Biotechnology Park has been planned at Jamnagar. Location feasibility study has been completed and land has been reserved. To facilitate technology development, technology Incubation centre is planned in marine and Agriculture biotechnology and activities have been initiated.

• Biotechnology has inter-face and application with various sectors and each sector has specific infrastructure needs. Marine Bio-Resource centre in area of Marine Biotechnology, Bio-Diversity gene bank in Forestry sector, DNA Finger printing centre in Agriculture sector and BIT Virtual institute of Bio-Informatics are specific projects which are under various stages of implementation.

• Marine resource centre is being developed in collaboration with Ayurved University at Jamnagar. It aims to provide infrastructure and research facilities for conservation of Marine bio-resource. The total project cost of approx Rs, 6.5 crores, spread over a period of five years.

• Bio-Diversity gene bank, is being developed in collaboration with Forest department at Gandhinagar, for providing infrastructure and research facilities for conservation of bio-diversity. The equipment and site has been developed and the project is likely to be operational by March 2009. It is being developed at cost of Rs. 6.00 crores, over a period of three years.

• DNA Finger printing centre, is being developed in collaboration with Forensic Science Laboratary, at Gandhinagar, for developing dedicated facilities for high end research and products for agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, and wildlife. The equipment and site has been developed and the project is likely to be operational by March 2009. It is being developed at cost of Rs.2.00 crores over period of three years.

• BIT Virtual institute of Bio-Informatics, is being developed in collaboration with 4 universities and 4 other centers. It aims to provide high end skilled manpower in Bio-informatics through virtual connectivity linking 8 center across the state. It is being developed at the cost of Rs. 2.00 crores. All equipments have been purchased, building renovations have been completed, manpower has been appointed. The project is likely to be operational by March 2009.

• CoE in Microbial genomics has been established in  MS University Vadodara, with cost of Rs. 97.0 lacs.

• CoE in Marine Biotechnology has been established in CSMCRI, Bhavnagar, with project cost of Rs. 103.0 lac.

Research Projects:

• GSBTM continued the financial support to the 16 research ongoing project, over a period of three years with total cost of Rs. 405.0 lacs.

• Of the 16 projects sanctioned, 7 project belong to Agriculture Biotechnology, 3 project belong to Environment Biotechnology, 3 project belong to Industrial Biotechnology, 1 project belong to Bioinformatics, 1 project belong to Pharma Biotechnology and 1 project belong to Animal Biotechnology.

• The research support has resulted in 17 Publications in International Scientific Journals, 7 Publications in National Journals, 37 Research Presentations in National & International Conferences, 6 M.Phil, 16 Ph.Ds who are in the stage of completion, and 27 JRF, SRF & RAs are working in the projects, till the 3^rd  year of the project,

• The projects work has also resulted in important Research Collaborations in last two yrs, with CSIR, New Delhi, DBT, New Delhi, DST, New Delhi, ICGEB, New Delhi,GSF—National Centre for Environment and Health, Neuherberg, Munich, Germany, john lnnes Centre, Norwich, UK, Tel-Aviv University, Israel for Biotechnology research, Arid forest research Institute, Jodhpur

In house project:

GSBTM has developed three reports, undertaken as in-house projects, by engaging students as project fellows. These task were spread over a period of 3-4 months. These include

• Drug report: It is 200 page report which analyses global national and state level trend of biotechnology drug development, with reference to target diseases, cost effectiveness, etc.

• Bio-informatics compendium: It is 250 page report which analyses global national and state level status level status of Bin-informatics, with reference to education, research, infrastructure and business. It contains profiles of global, national companies engaged in Bin-informatics.

• Marine patent dataset: It is 80 page compilations of nearly 160 patent technologies in the field of marine biotechnology. The information has been collected, classified and compiled into client friendly format.

• GSBTM has also guided 12 dissertation projects for students.

The investment is distributed allover the state in Vapi-Surat cluster, Ankleshwar-Bharuch cluster, Anand-Vadodra cluster, Ahmedabad cluster and Bhavnagar.

Bio-spectrum ABLE- had conducted survey of BT industries of India, with reference to number of companies, revenue, turn over etc. Gujarat has been witnessing a steady climb in Biotechnology Since last five years the number of Biotechnology companies in Gujarat has been increasing Gujarat, with around 100-105 companies having presence in biotech space is gradually figuring in the top three states of the country. Gujarat state Biotechnology Mission, the newly created created organization has been silently but very actively marketing the state through one to one meeting It is for the credit to the state that Bio-spectrum, top most leading biotechnology magazine of the country, had voted Gujarat as Best bio-State of the country for the year 2007-08. This year Gujarat state Biotechnology mission, along with bio-spectrum, has brought exclusive Gujarat supplement on the occasion of Global investor summit and is making efforts to project Gujarat as BT destination.

Best Bio-State Award to Gujarat:

Cyber Media is a Bangalore based established and prestigious publication group, which has been focusing and covering the growth and development of knowledge sector in India, encompassing information technology and biotechnology. It has been tracking a progress and developments taking place at National and State levels in these fields and has been taking it to intellectual professional researchers and common readers.

Biospectrum is an important magazine of this publication house whose publication extends to the entire country and Asia- pacific as well. This magazine, dedicated to Biotechnology, has become an important source of information in this field. Biospectrum magazine is in close contact with DBT, CSIR, DST and other policy making departments of a Government of India and other States. It has nearly become a voice of Biotechnology sector and has been acting as a bridge between Government of India and the Biotechnology Stake holders.

Biospectrum has been analyzing the growth and development of Biotechnology sector with reference to new products, new technology and new enterprises. It has played a key role in shaping up the Biotechnology development strategy of the country. To encourage the originations, individuals, industries and States in the field of Biotechnology, Biospectrum magazine has instituted awards for various categories—

1. The various policy level and scheme level actions.
2. Involvement and contribution of key department and policy makers. (Chief Ministers, Professionals etc)
3. New investment in the field of Biotechnology in the state.
4. Future planning

The State Government has been undertaking elaborate measures for promoting Biotechnology. On the basis of these actions initiated by State Government of Gujarat has been awarded Bio state of the year of 2007 This award was declared in the December issue of Bio-spectrum magazine. The award was received by GSBTM on dated 29 December, 2007 at Bangalore in the Bio-Spectrum Award Function. Gujarat has been taking steps towards the knowledge sector and its performance the area of Biotechnology has been taken note at the national level.