Role Of Biotechnology In Resolving Pollution & Malnutrition Issues Stressed At SOA Seminar In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: Antibiotics, which played a major role in combating the COVID 19 virus that killed more than 5.3 lakh people in India, should be viewed as a kind of national security, said Prof N Tajuddin, an expert in the field of biotechnology, in Bhubaneswar on Monday.

Prof Tajuddin, Pro-Vice Chancellor of BS Abdur Rehman Crescent Institute of Science and Technology, a Deemed to be University at Chennai, was speaking at the inaugural programme of the two-day national seminar on ‘Research and Innovations in Industrial and Marine Biotechnology: A Circular Economy’ at the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) in Bhubaneswar.

He said there was a need for development in this field for which the cooperation of the society at large was needed. Pointing out that environmental pollution and malnutrition had emerged as huge problems for the world, he said biotechnology had a huge role to play in mitigating these problems.

Sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology’s Science and Engineering Research Board (DST-SERB), the seminar is being organised by SOA’s Centre for Industrial Biotechnology Research (CIBR) in collaboration with National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) and Biotechnology Research Society of India (BRSI), Thiruvananthapuram.

The seminar, being attended by researchers, industry experts and policy makers, aimed to foster discussions on innovative biotechnological solutions which align with circular economy principles. “The subject of the seminar is very important in the present scenario as industrial and marine biotechnology are poised to play critical roles in addressing contemporary global challenges such as resource scarcity, environmental degradation and climate change,” Prof Hrudaynath Thatoi, Director of CIBR, said.

Prof Pravat Kumar Roul, Vice-Chancellor of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) in Bhubaneswar, said biotechnology was the tool which could help in development of agriculture. “Biotechnology is the future of technology,” he said adding there were 6000 start-ups, 760 companies and 800 products in the field of biotechnology.

Prof Pradipta Kumar Nanda, Vice-Chancellor of SOA, who presided the session, said SOA was focusing on biotechnology and was in the process of organising an international conference on the subject in November next year. SOA had been laying a lot of thrust on research and had set up 19 research centres including CIBR till now, he added.

Dr Anindita Chakraborty, Scientist, UGC-DAE CSR, Kolkata Centre said science had no existence without biotechnology. Dr Sibani Mohapatra and Dr Amrita Banerjee spoke at the programme which was conducted by Dr Sasmita Mohanty.