India's Bioeconomy: A Brief Overview of the Status, Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The Bioeconomy sector of India of which biotechnology is a major driver of growth has set a major goal of growing from its' current $4.3 billion to about $100 billion by 2025. The bio-pharmaceutical sectors followed by agricultural biotechnology are industry's biggest sources of revenue. However, these sectors which have tremendous potential to contribute to the economic growth of the country and to contribute towards addressing some of the major problems that the country faces, such as, food security and health of the population is also facing several challenges. Against this background, this paper presents an overview of the status of the Bioeconomy sector, the opportunities and challenges faced by the sector in India with specific reference to health and agricultural sectors. The paper also briefly touches upon the way forward for India to utilize the full potential of this sector to address food security, and health concerns of its population and also to contribute to the country's economic growth.