Expressing government’s concern over the slow pace of agriculture growth, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, on Thursday, observed that biotechnology as a tool could assist in boosting agricultural growth.
Addressing the 7th Edition of the BangaloreBio 2007 here, Mr Chidambaram said it is important to deploy biotechnology to improve agriculture production in the country and become self sufficient in food grains specially wheat, paddy, pulses and oilseeds.

Stagnant production
Sluggish agriculture growth is a concern even as the overall economy expands at a fast pace, he said, noting that while agriculture grew just 2.7 per cent, services expanded 11 per cent and industry rose 10.9 per cent. The production of wheat and rice has remained stagnant for the past 10 years, he said, adding it was indeed a matter of grave concern. Conceding that biotech sector, specially agri-biotechnology needs more money and resources in order to pursue research and development, Mr Chidambaram said only biotech could help in bridging the huge gap in agriculture productivity on a sustained, long term basis and make the country self-sufficient in foodgrains.
Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, in his address, called upon Mr Chidambaram to earmark a certain percentage of the revenue generated by the IT exports exclusively for development of the IT and BT sectors in the country. This fund, he said, could be called IT & BT Infrastructure fund.
Further, he urged the Centre to extend the STPI scheme beyond 2010 by another ten years to 2020 so that the tax benefits derived by SMEs under Section 10(A) and 10(B) of IT Act could be further enjoyed.

Respect knowledge workers
Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, on Thursday,  called for creating an “enabling environment” where knowledge workers are accorded highest respect and recognition in the country.
The country could aspire to be a knowledge centre only when its knowledge workers like researchers, scientists and teachers were held in high esteem.
In this regard, he said, Bangalore, which is globally recognised as the country’s IT Capital,  could take the lead to emerge as the Knowledge Capital of the country as well.
Addressing the three-day BangaloreBio 2007 here, Mr Chidambaram said the critical need of the hour was human resources.
Though states may spend on primary and secondary education, real breakthroughs are achieved by persons who have access to higher education and have the opportunity to conduct research.
The value of teachers, researchers and scientists could not be undermined in a country that is hoping to grow as a knowledge society, Mr Chidambaram observed.
Both the government and private sector need to build the quality of human resources by ensuring that they are retained in the country and also weaned back those now abroad into the country, he said.