IIT Madras, French varsity partner to offer sustainable biomanufacturing course

IIT Madras is partnering with University of Tours, France, to offer a course on ‘Sustainable Bio-Manufacturing of high-value Phytochemicals’. This course is being offered through the ‘Global Initiative of Academic Networks’ (GIAN) programme to promote collaboration with international universities.

The course is in line with the vision of the Government of India’s recently-announced ‘BioE3’ Policy, which aims to promote and facilitate large-scale manufacturing of bio-products for sustainable development with high-performance biomanufacturing.

The course deals with sustainable biomanufacturing of high-value plant-derived natural products using plant and microbial bio-factories, which can also conserve nature while fulfilling the increasing market demand for phytochemicals for various commercial applications.

Highlighting the need for such courses, Prof Smita Srivastava, Department of Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences, IIT Madras, said, “For India to tap on the growing demand for plant based natural products and phytochemicals in the domestic as well as global market, and to become a global biomanufacturing hub in this niche segment, it is imperative to work around three pillars including capacity building, innovation and entrepreneurship in this specialised domain.”

Prof Nathalie Giglioli-Guivarc’h, Director, of Biomolecules and Plant Biotechnologies Laboratory, University of Tours, France, said, “The Covid-19 pandemic has, among other things, highlighted the need for states such as those in Asia and Europe to secure production of certain vital medicines. Thus, the development of technologies for production of active ingredients of plant origin, such as anticancer drugs, as alternatives to growing plants in fields, and as part of a sustainable development approach, is becoming one of the major challenges of the coming decade.”

The Government of India approved ‘Global Initiative of Academic Networks’ (GIAN) in higher education is designed to tap the talent pool of scientists and entrepreneurs, internationally to encourage their engagement with the institutes of higher education in India so as to augment the country’s existing academic resources, accelerate the pace of quality reform, and elevate India’s scientific and technological capacity to global excellence.