NITI Aayog moots ₹50,000-crore fund, schemes for biotech boost

New Delhi: The government's public policy think tank NITI Aayog has unveiled an ambitious blueprint to turn biotechnology into India's next major growth engine, proposing a ₹50,000-crore BioEconomy Growth Fund, six national biotechnology missions and regulatory reforms to build a $691-billion bioeconomy by 2035, which would generate over 30 million high-value jobs.

The recommendations are part of the 'Roadmap for Building India as a Leading BioEconomy Powerhouse by 2035', released by the NITI Frontier Tech Hub in consultation with the department of biotechnology, industry leaders and biotechnology experts. The report was released by Jitendra Singh, minister of state for science and technology and Gobardhan Das, member, NITI Aayog, on Thursday.

Bioeconomy is emerging as a new engine of economic growth, with biotechnology increasingly being used to develop medicines, improve crop yields, produce sustainable fuels and chemicals and manufacture materials using biological processes instead of fossil fuel-based methods.

According to the report, India's bioeconomy has expanded nearly 16-fold over the past decade, growing from $10 billion in 2014 to $195.3 billion in 2025, and it now contributes 4.8% to the country's GDP. It said the next phase should move from incremental growth to mission-mode execution by leveraging artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and next-generation biomanufacturing.

BioEconomy Growth Fund

The most significant recommendation is the creation of a ₹50,000-crore BioEconomy Growth Fund for 2026-2035 to bridge what the report calls the "valley of death" between laboratory innovation and commercial-scale manufacturing. The proposed fund would provide blended finance, catalytic equity and infrastructure support for biomanufacturing, advanced therapeutics, diagnostics, fermentation platforms, biomaterials and synthetic biology ventures.

The roadmap also recommends production-linked incentive (PLI)-style incentives for biomanufacturing and faster regulatory approvals to help India emerge as a global manufacturing hub for biotechnology products while reducing import dependence on critical bio-inputs.

The report serves as a policy blueprint for expanding India's biotechnology sector into a major economic driver. Beyond setting growth targets, it recommends financing mechanisms, regulatory reforms, governance structures and sector-specific missions to help India compete with countries such as the US, China and members of the European Union in the rapidly growing global bioeconomy.

India's bioeconomy was valued at $195.3 billion in 2025, according to the India BioEconomy Report 2026 released by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) in March. The sector spans biopharmaceuticals, industrial biotechnology, agricultural biotechnology and research services, and includes nearly 11,900 biotech startups. Biopharmaceuticals remain the largest export-oriented segment, with India's pharmaceutical exports at $25.05 billion in FY26, up 2% from $24.57 billion in FY25.

Six National BioMissions

The roadmap recommended six National BioMissions to build capabilities in frontier areas of biotechnology. These include affordable gene and cell therapies under GeneIndia, climate-resilient crops through AgriBio 2.0, AI-driven synthetic biology platforms under BioX Foundry, an integrated disease surveillance system through One Health Grid, marine biotechnology to boost the blue economy, and BioPharmaNext to establish India as a global hub for biologics, biosimilars, vaccines, and cell and gene therapies.

To improve policy coordination, it recommended the setting up of an empowered committee on National BioMissions, a National BioData Council to govern biological and health data, a BioEconomy Investment and Policy Forum to align public and private investments, and a dedicated Bio-IP Accelerated Pathway to speed up patent approvals and commercialization of biotechnology innovations.

The roadmap called for faster regulatory approval pathways for emerging technologies such as cell and gene therapies, synthetic biology and AI-designed drugs, creation of regulatory sandboxes to accelerate innovation, and the modernization of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, besides strengthening intellectual property (IP) protection for biotechnology innovations.

On infrastructure, the report recommended developing a national network of biofoundries and biomanufacturing hubs equipped with advanced automation, pilot manufacturing facilities and scale-up infrastructure to help translate laboratory research into commercial products.