Events
Participation in 6th Global Knowledge Summit in New Delhi
This Department was an official State-partner of the 6th. Global Knowledge Millennium Summit, 2009 – “Bio Nano for Sustainable Agriculture”, organized by ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industries of India) in New Delhi on 13th. & 14th. of February, 2009. Many researchers, university teachers, and even agri-biotech farmers from West Bengal attended the said summit. In the said summit, a stall was allotted to the Government of West Bengal and it was decorated with the information about the biodiversity and investment opportunities in West Bengal.
Participation in the "Bangalore Bio" conference in Bangalore
In June, 2009, the Department participated in a 3(three) day-long (held on 18th, 19th & 20th) International seminar, “Bangalore Bio", 2009 in Bangalore, Karnataka. It is perhaps the biggest of its kind held in India. Hundreds of biotech companies, investors and scientists from India and abroad participated in the said conference. It has been made possible by the Department to arrange meetings of 4 (four) biotech-based companies and so also the functionaries of ABLE (Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises) with the Hon’ble Minister-in-Charge and all of them showed much interest in coming to West Bengal as they feel the talent-pool in West Bengal is of a very high quality in case of biotechnology. The follow up actions are being taken.
Participation in the day-long Conference on "Bio-pharma Hub: Advantage West Bengal"
On April 20, 2010, this Department as the official partner with ASSOCHAM participated in the day-long conference on “Bio-pharma Hub” at Hotel Taj Bengal, Kolkata. The MIC, Dr. Debesh Das delivered the key-note address describing in detail about how the Government of West Bengal has been getting ready to usher in a new era in modern healthcare and pharmaceutical biotechnology as well as genomics. Many a scholars and industry representatives from all over India participated in the event making it a grand success.
Inauguration of Kolkata Biotech Park
Kolkata Biotech Park has been set up in a G+9 building at EN-24, Sector-V, Salt Lake, Kolkata. The Kolkata Biotech Park is a key project of the newly formed West Bengal Biotech Development Corporation Ltd. (WBBDCL) executed with the technical support from the Dr. B.C. Guha Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (GCGEB) under University of Calcutta. In this park 38,000 sq. fit state-of-the art bio-incubator facility has been set up. The highly sophisticated common instrumentation facility present here under the government initiative is novel in the country. This particular building is housing an ultra-modern Genome sequencer, DNA sequencer, Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography (FPLC), Real Time PCR, Gel Documentation System (Geldoc) and many other sophisticated instruments. This Centre would aim at fostering small start-up companies in the field of Biotechnology to start up their technology development and proof-of-principle tests leveraging the benefit of central instrumentation facility. This will also endow the participants’ access to state of the art instrumentation and research facilities to enable them to conduct globally competitive as well as cutting edge biotechnology research against a nominal rental.
Kolkata Biotech Park was inaugurated on Feb 28, 2011 by Hon’ble Chief Minister, West Bengal. Hon’ble Minister-in-Charge, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of West Bengal, was the guest of the event. The function was presided over by Hon’ble M.I.C, Department of Information Technology & Biotechnology, Govt. of West Bengal. The inaugural ceremony ended with flying colours leaving a indelible mark on everybody who attended the function.