threats of biotech

Established biomedical hubs such as Singapore/ Australia in the region and emerging hubs such as Malaysia: The emergence of Singapore and Malaysia as biomedical hubs could pose a threat to India's ambitions of becoming a regional biotech powerhouse as all the countries vie for the same opportunities. While India does have its advantages over its nearest rivals in terms of English-speaking, technically-qualified manpower, and diversity of natural resources, countries such as Singapore are building advanced infrastructure and flaunting billion-dollar funding potential, which would be hard for India to match in the short term.. Global Image of India: India continues to be viewed as a 'license-raj' marked by a bureaucratic democracy with a high level of corruption and red tape. Western economies continue to be wary of the much-hyped economic reforms started in the early 1990s. . Trade barriers: The WTO has worked toward removal of quantitative restrictions (QR) on imports and high tariff barriers put up by various governments for protecting domestic industries from foreign onslaught. However, Indian biotechnology products could still be shackled by various import registration systems, multiple licensing requirements, and disparate regulatory laws relating to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), Good Laboratory Practice (GLP), drug testing and so on, and sundry policies followed by various governments. Lack of faith in the Indian regulatory system also poses a grave risk that exports of Indian products could be banned in some countries. India needs a sound regulatory system in line with other countries.. Human resource development: Although India boasts of a wide base of academically sound and widely English speaking scientists, it is known that there is dearth of bi-lingual experts, in terms of academic-technical capabilities, as well as equally conversant with IPR, regulatory issues and commercial aspects of the market. If this area is not worked upon the expanding biotechnology industry may soon face an acute shortage of persons with desired skill sets.