Technology as force multiplier hugely undermined, says KTR at WEF panel talk

The power of industrial biotechnology to come out with resilient solutions for climate change was undermined and underestimated, he said at a panel discussion on Biotechnology Revolution at the ongoing WEF.

Hyderabad: Stating that both technology and biology sectors had made rapid progress, IT Minister KT Rama Rao observed that biotechnology was not put to optimum use to tackle climate change.

The power of industrial biotechnology to come out with resilient solutions for climate change was undermined and underestimated, he said at a panel discussion on Biotechnology Revolution at the ongoing World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Davos on Wednesday.

Stating that technology and its power to act as a force multiplier too was hugely undermined and yet to be unleashed, the Minister said with the power of science enhanced by latest technologies, we could have a number of solutions that would help in better drug discovery, precision medicine and better-personalised healthcare solutions.

On the employment in the biotech sector, the Minister said that India had a very young thinkforce and the power of youth in what they can bring in terms of disruption was hugely underestimated. A lot of scientific labs in India were focused on papers and journals but not on real-world applications.

“The ability to create jobs lies in bringing synergy and aligning what happens in scientific labs to what the real world requires,” the Minister said, stressing that by synchronising the way research was being done and the way it was introduced to the market, India could not only solve its problems but also the problems of the world.

On India being part of global conversation on regulations and emerging technologies, the Minister pointed out that the Covid pandemic had exposed inadequacies in medical infrastructure and loopholes in regulatory framework. Stressing that approvals can be fast tracked, he also said the pandemic had taught that problems cannot be solved without multilateral cooperation.

Towards this, the Telangana government and the WEF were collaborating to set up the Centre for Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) in Hyderabad to focus on healthcare and life sciences, he said.

Apart from the pandemic, microbial infection, there was huge scope to collaborate to address the threat from Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).

“I believe WEF offers opportunities to connect with policy think-tanks, leading biotechnologists, technology players and take the best from the world to bring out something unique and universal,” KT Rama Rao said.