International Seminar on Entrepreneurial Botany and Sustainable Development begins at USTM
Khanapara, Oct 27: Plant scientists must evolve as bio resource-based economy is growing in this country. Time has come to convert this bio diversity rich North East region of the country into bio resources and then to bio economy. The future is with the plant scientists now. This has been stated by Prof. S K Barik, Director CSIR-NBRI Lucknow here today while addressing the inaugural session of the International Seminar on “Advances in Entrepreneurial Botany: Entrepreneurship Opportunities from Plant Resources for Sustainable Development” organised by Department of Botany, University of Science & Technology Meghalaya (USTM) in collaboration with CSIR- National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow. The inaugural session was also addressed by Prof. PS Shukla, VC, NEHU Shillong and Prof. GD Sharma, VC, USTM apart from others.
Prof Barik congratulated USTM for taking Botany to the entrepreneurship world. He said that India has now opened up in this area as the notification came recently on 25th October 2022, where India’s biotech regulator, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), has approved genetically modified (GM) mustard for commercial cultivation, paving the way for the country’s first transgenic food crop, after nearly 15 years of struggle by its inventor Prof Deepak Pental, the then Vice Chancellor of Delhi University. Indian scientists are now looking forward to contributing towards bio economy where a lot of opportunities are lying, he added.
Addressing the participants, Prof. P S Shukla said that biodiversity is critical for human existence. But it is under huge threat globally. If we destroy our biodiversity, we not only lose various species but also the foundation of our existence.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof GD Sharma said that plant scientists can take herbal medicine products to the global market using high technology. “This international seminar is providing platform for fusion of plant resources with traditional and modern technology”, he said. He also said that the department of Botany is contemplating to develop a course on Bio-entrepreneurship which will help students do business using the plant resources.
The seminar has been supported by government agencies and organizations like DST, INSA, CSIR-NBRI while more than 200 participants comprising research scholars, students, entrepreneurs and academicians across the globe have participated in the seminar. A number of foreign delegates and experts have joined the seminar. Some of them are: Dr Majid Sharifi-Rad, Faculty of Water and Soil, University of Zabol, Iran; Dr Emma Camilleri, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta; Dr Renald Blundell, Centre for Molecular Medicine and Biobanking, University of Malta; Dr Hamed Barabadi, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran and Dr Awdhesh Kumar Mishra, Department of Biotechnology, Yeungnam University, South Korea.
