Tamil Nadu Biotechnology Policy

Tamil Nadu Biotechnology Policy has been framed by the State Government to promote the growth of the biotechnology industry. The Tamil Nadu Biotechnology policy aims at providing adequate infrastructure, especially in the form of biotechnology parks that lead to facilitate biotech product development, entrepreneurship, research and innovation. Also, read about Tamil Nadu Industrial Policy

Objectives of the Biotechnology Policy

The objectives of the biotechnology policy are listed below:

To develop high-quality infrastructure for manufacturing units by setting up specialised biotech parks in the State.
To provide incentives to the biotech industry and sectors.
To develop human resources at different levels in the field of biotechnology.
To facilitate the flow of venture capital fund and a bank loan to biotech companies.
To address the existing issues such as intellectual property rights, bio-surveillance, bio-safety and bio-ethics.
To facilitate and encourage biotechnology at the grass-root level for economic development in the State.
To facilitate the human resources in biotechnology by introducing new courses and promote the private sector in establishing institutions.

Applications of Biotechnology

The biotechnology has applications in the following areas:

Health care
Crop production and agriculture
Industrial uses of crops and other related products (e.g., vegetable oil, bio-degradable plastics, biofuels, textiles, paper)
The Tamilnadu Biotechnology policy aims at providing adequate infrastructure, especially in the form of biotechnology parks that lead to facilitate biotech product development, entrepreneurship, research and innovation.
Environmental applications.

Major Areas of the Biotechnology sector

The following areas are excepted to offer enormous growth opportunities in the biotechnology sector:

Vaccines and Recombination Therapeutics
Animal biotechnology
Contract Research
Clinical Trials and Outsourcing
Agricultural Sector
Bioinformatics

Note: In addition to the above, the following areas will offer tremendous scope for potential investment in the biotechnology sector:

Medicinal and aromatic plants
Animal Biotechnology
Aquaculture and Marine Biotechnology
Seri biotechnology
Human Genetics and Genome Analysis
Environmental Biotechnology
Microbial and Industrial Biotechnology
Healthcare
Bio-fuels
Software Support

Infrastructure for Manufacturing

Under biotechnology policy, the following infrastructure facilities will be provided for manufacturing sectors.

Biotechnology Enterprise Zone

The State Government, in collaboration with TIDCO, will act as the nodal agency to establish the Tamil Nadu biotechnology enterprise zone. The zone will address the core biotech park and marine biotech park. The zone will address the following services such as:

Consulting services
Regulatory facilitation
Single window facilitation cell and
IPR cell

Special Investment Zones for Biotech Industry

The Tamilnadu Government will facilitate the creation of Special Investment Zones for undertaking biotech manufacturing and Research and Development (R&D) activities:

Biotech Parks

The State Government will support the development of biotech parks by providing land and plug and play infrastructure for biotechnology industries. Such biotech parks will be encouraged in various districts of Tamilnadu, and mostly public-private partnerships will be encouraged to set up projects in the model of TICEL. To encourage the Private sector to establish such biotech parks, the State Government will provide:

To the extent of 100%, stamp duty concession on built-up space will be offered under such biotech parks. Such biotech parks should have common infrastructure like testing facilities, labs etc.,
The additional financial incentive for the IT industry, with the requirement that at least 75% of build-up space should be used by Biotech industries including pharma, contract research organisations in bioinformatics, biotechnology, etc.
Provide external infrastructure facilities such as power, water supply, communication, access roads, dumpsites for waste disposal etc.
Provide single-window clearance and facilitation for biotech projects and biotech parks.

Bio-Incubators

Bio-Incubators will facilitate in licensing new technologies to biotech companies for setting up of new ventures. The State Government will offer a 50% subsidy of the total cost, capped at Rs.5 crores to engineering colleges and universities to establish such bio-incubators.

Biotechnology Venture Capital

The State Government, in partnership with venture capital and leading private equity firms, will develop a biotechnology venture capital fund of Rs.500 crore on PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model. Such joint venture capital fund will help in establishing networks for effective marketing of the products of the startups.

Incentive on Power Tariff and Electricity Duty

The uninterrupted power supply will be given to biotech parks. Such parks will be exempted from any power cuts and load restrictions.
Captive power purchased for installation in biotech parks will be refunded.

Fiscal Incentives

Fiscal incentives like environment protection infrastructure subsidy and capital subsidy will be as per the Tamil Nadu Industrial Policy.
Soft loan or subsidy will be provided depending on the size of the investment, employment and location of manufacturing industries.
For contract organisation and research and development institutions, a capital subsidy of 15% of the eligible investment, capped at Rs.5 crores will be given.
The eligible incentive will include the maximum of 30% of eligible fixed assets in the form of intangible assets such as IPR-related expenses occurred and technology fees paid etc.
A training subsidy of Rs.7,500 per month per trainee will be provided for undertaking training and generating employment opportunities.
The subsidy of 50%, which is limited to the maximum amount of Rs.2 lakhs will be provided for registering a patent.

Single Window Clearance

Single Window Clearance will be given for all biotechnology Research and Development (R&D) and manufacturing projects with a minimum investment of Rs.10 crores through the Guidance Bureau, the notified agency for Single Window Clearance in the State.