Context
Recently, the Union Minister inaugurated North India’s First Biotech Park at Ghatti, Kathua district, J&K.
About
- This biotech park will carry out research on biodiversity, medicinal and aromatic plants of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, and it will also promote green category businesses.
- The biotechnology park at Kathua has a potential to produce 25 startups in a year which will be among its great contributions to this region.
- The work on the two Industrial Biotech Parks, one at Ghatti, Kathua, Jammu and other in Handwara, Kashmir jointly funded by department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, Ministry of Science & Technology and Jammu & Kashmir Science, Technology & Innovation Council was started in February 2019.
- CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, (CSIR-IIIM) Jammu has been entrusted with the responsibility of implementation of this project.
About Biotech Park
- The Department of Biotechnology has established Biotechnology Parks/Incubators across the country to translate research into products and services by providing essential infrastructure support.
- These Parks offer services to Scientists and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) for technology incubation, technology demo and pilot plant studies for accelerated commercial development of Biotechnology.
- It also helps new enterprises to forge linkages with other stakeholders of the biotechnology sector including academia and Government.
