Niti Aayog has proposed a major overhaul of India’s biotechnology strategy, recommending the country to replace fragmented programmes with six mission-driven national initiatives, accelerating growth in the sector. These recommendations come as part of its newly released bioeconomy roadmap, which sets a target of building a $691 billion bioeconomy by 2035.The roadmap mentioned that the shift to a mission-based framework is needed to strengthen capabilities across healthcare, agriculture, industrial biotechnology and disease surveillance, while ensuring research translates into globally competitive products and large-scale manufacturing.“These are designed to build sovereign capabilities across advanced therapeutics, climate-resilient agriculture, synthetic biology platforms, pandemic preparedness, blue-economy innovation and next-generation biologics,” the roadmap stated.Under the proposed framework, GeneIndia will focus on expanding access to affordable gene and cell therapies as well as precision diagnostics. AgriBio 2.0 has been proposed to develop climate-resilient crop varieties and quality-assured bio-inputs, while BioX Foundry is aimed at taking synthetic biology innovations from the laboratory to the market.The roadmap also recommends launching One Health Grid to strengthen AI-assisted disease surveillance, Marine Biotechnology to promote seaweed cultivation and marine bioproducts, and BioPharmaNext to establish India as a global centre for next-generation biologics, biosimilars, vaccines and AI-driven drug discovery.To help put these missions into action, the roadmap proposes setting up an Empowered Committee on National BioMissions, a National BioData Council, a BioEconomy Investment and Policy Forum, and a fast-track system for intellectual property approvals. These measures are aimed at improving coordination, strengthening the way biotechnology data is managed, and helping new biotech innovations reach the market faster.The roadmap further recommends establishing a Rs 50,000-crore BioEconomy Growth Fund for 2026-2035 to help bridge the gap between laboratory research and commercial-scale manufacturing. It also calls for PLI-style incentives, quicker regulatory approvals and stronger intellectual property protection to support domestic production, reduce import dependence, anchor global supply chains in India and boost export-oriented biomanufacturing.The roadmap notes that the country’s bioeconomy has expanded 16-fold over the past decade to reach $195.3 billion, contributing 4.8% to the country’s GDP. It estimates that the sector could grow to $691 billion by 2035, generate more than 30 million high-value jobs and give rise to 15 globally competitive biotechnology companies.
