Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday said India's bio-economy has grown eight times in the last 8 years under the Modi government from 10 billion dollars in 2014 to over 80 billion dollars in 2022.

The Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office said three biotech startups were incorporated every day in 2021 and a total of 1,128 biotech startups were set up last year alone, signalling the rapid growth of the sector in the country.

Addressing an 'International Conference on Emerging Trends in Biosciences and Chemical Technology- 2022' here, Singh said the biotech startups have grown 100 times in the last 8 years from 52 odd startups in 2014 to 5,300 plus in 2022.

The conference is being organized by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, School of Biotechnology, Jammu in collaboration with CSIR-IIIM Jammu and the Biotech Research Society of India, from December 3 to 5.

There are 14 international participants like USA, Greece, South Korea, Scotland, Singapore, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia and Vietnam and 24 National keynote and invited speakers and around 300 participants from almost every state of India who are presenting their work in the form of oral and poster presentations, an official release said.

The minister pointed out that from a paltry investment of Rs 10 Crore in bio-economy in 2014, the fund growth saw 400 times hike to Rs 4200 crore in 2022, creating over 25,000 high skilled jobs.

"The number of biotech incubators have increased from six in 2014 to 75 now, while biotech products have increased from 10 to more than 700 today," he said.

Dwelling on the growth of India's bioeconomy, Singh said India administered nearly four million doses of COVID-19 vaccines per day and a total of 1.45 billion doses in 2021.

"Similarly, we conducted 1.3 million COVID-19 tests each day in 2021 and overall 507 million tests in 2021," he said.

Singh also pointed out that the biotech industry crossed one-billion-dollar Research and Development spend, thanks to Covid economy and it almost trebled within a year from 320 million dollars in 2020 to 1,02 billion dollars in 2021.

"India will soon enter the league of top-5 countries in Biotech's global ecosystem," he said.

The minister quoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to point out the five big reasons why India is being considered a land of opportunities in the field of biotech.

"First- diverse population and diverse climatic zones, second- India's talented human capital pool, third- increasing efforts for ease of doing business in India, fourth- the demand for bio-products is increasing continuously in India and fifth- India's biotech sector and its track record of success," he said.

Referring to the growing reputation and profile of Indian professionals on the global stage, Singh said there is growing trust in the skill and innovation of Indian IT professionals in the world and in this bio-economy decade, the same will be true for the bio professionals of India.

Scientific sessions of the conference have been divided under different themes on health sciences, enzymology and molecular biology, synthetic biology, material science and nanomaterial, natural products and green chemistry, environmental sustainability and development and plant and animal science.

-With PTI Input