Bangalore

The Indian biotech industry, once touted as a major job generator, may not have lived up to expectations, but there is still hope. According to industry experts, the sector is poised for immense growth thereby leading to a significant increase in job creation in the coming few years.

There has been a noticeable shift in international firms preferring India as their destination for conducting research due to its cost effectiveness. This will lead to more multinational firms setting up base in India and in turn that will lead to a significant jump in job generation, experts who participated Bangalore Bio (the annual biotech event in Bangalore) have said. Till last year, the industry hired about 10,000 people annually.

“The Indian biotech industry is expected to touch $100 billion by 2015. This indicates that international firms are now looking at India for their R&D, thereby opening up more opportunities for the talent available in the country. However, it is very difficult to quantify how many jobs this industry will create in the next few years,” said Gopal Vaidyanathan, general manager-Applications, Waters India, a life sciences firm.

Agreed J B Gupta, senior VP – Collaborative Research, GVK Biosciences who said: “India has a strong academic system with a huge talent pool. Further, recession saw restructuring happening in major pharma companies such as closure of its R&D divisions, reduction of headcount to manage costs. This will open up numerous opportunities for India.” While the Indian biotech sector has the potential for growth, what acts as a hindrance is the lack of trained manpower.

shreerupamitra

@mydigitalfc.com