In an effort to help public sector institutions to evaluate the biosafety and performance of genetically modified crops, India's Department of Biotechnology (DPT) has in the last few years, created the state-of-the-art facilities to support commercialization of biotech crops developed by the public sector institutions in the country. DBT provided financial support to establish 40 such facilities in different institutions across India to augment biotech research in agriculture and pharmaceutical sectors. These include R&D facilities for toxicological studies, DNA sequencing, international depository, transgenic greenhouse, bioinformatics, proteomics,  microarray genetics and cell imaging, basic biology research, and phytotron containment to facilitate the national efforts on the development of transgenic crops.

For details of various biotech facilities visit DBT website at: http://www.dbtindia.nic.in/MOU/Biotech%20Facilities.doc or email Dr. SR Rao, Advisor, DBT at: srrao@dbt.nic.in. Contact Bhagirath Choudary for
more information on biotech developments in India at b.choudhary@isaaa.org..