What is the current scenario of biotech education in India? How can it be improved?
Career Prospects in Biotechnology was not praiseworth even before 7/8 years. However, situtation has been changed completely now. Graduates of biotechnology are now able to get jobs in India. Previously, more job opportunities were created in overseas countries. Hence, today biotechnology has become a sought after and lucrative course. More and more job opportunities have to be created as students graduating from different colleges with biotechnology get the chance to get recruited in good companies.
Biotechnology being primarily knowledge based, basic human resources development is very important. In order to have a thriving biotechnology industry and in order to sustain it on a long term basis we need to have good modern biology including all its aspects like good molecular biology, good structural biology, cell biology, etc. A major effort in this area came from the government. In the early eighties the Department of Science and Technology established a National Biotechnology Board, a forerunner to the Department of Biotechnology that came up later. The first thrust of the board was manpower development. It was then that the first MSc biotechnology courses were started in the country. We were also involved in it and IISc perhaps was the first institute, which had organized post doctorate programs in the country. These were some government initiatives, which have served the country very well. But now the tendency is a mushrooming of biotechnology courses in the country without pr
