Biotechnology is the new sunshine sector which could create a million jobs in a decade providing the new political dispensation in the country a tool to carry out its promise of creating a large number of jobs.

Karnataka has established a pre-eminent position in the sector. The state is expecting an investment of over Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) within the next two years in the biotechnology sector.

Disclosing this at the inauguration of Bangalore Bio 2004, Karnataka's Biotechnology Vision Group chairperson and Biocon chief executive officer Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said the state attracted Rs 750 crore (Rs 7.50 billion) of new investments in the biotech sector during the fiscal year 2003-04.

Incidentally, Karnataka was the highest recipient of venture capital funding to the tune of Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.50 billion) during the same period.

"On the revenue front, Karnataka stood first in the country with earning a combined revenue of Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion), including Rs 750 crore (Rs 7.50 billion) from exports in the last fiscal. During the same year, of the 25 new biotech firms set up in the country, 17 were located in Karnataka, taking the total number of companies in the state to 110, including 97 in Bangalore alone," Shaw said.

In her address to over 500 delegates participating in the three-day mega event, Shaw reiterated that the biotech sector has the potential to create a million jobs across the country in the current decade. 

During the last financial yar, manpower involved in the sector in Karnataka increased to 9,000 people, which includes about 5,000 scientific personnel.

"In the last few years, India has clearly emerged on the global map of biotech industry and Bangalore has come to spearhead the growth of the sector in the country," Shaw added.

Meanwhile, the state government has initiated the much awaited process of setting up a biotechnology park at Electronics City on the outskirts of Bangalore. 

Reassuring the state's commitment to information technology and biotechnology sectors, Karnataka chief minister N Dharam Singh has declared that the biotech park would come up in about 100 acres with an investment of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) by 2006.