Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (MoS) (IC), Ministry of Science and Technology; MoS (IC) Ministry of Earth Science; MoS, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has launched single national portal for biotech researchers and start-ups. The Portal “BioRRAP” will cater to all those seeking regulatory approval for biological research and development activity in the country, and thus aims for “Ease of Science as well as Ease of Business.”
Speaking during the launch of Biological Research Regulatory Approval Portal (BioRRAP), Dr Singh said, India is poised to become a global bio-manufacturing hub and will figure among the top five countries of the world by 2025.
Dr Singh said that the portal will also allow stakeholders to see the approvals accorded against a particular application through a unique BioRRAP ID. He described this unique portal of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) as a step towards ‘Ease of Doing Science and Scientific research’ and ‘Ease of Start-ups’ in India. Biotechnology has fast emerged as an academic and livelihood avenue for youngsters in India. There are over 2,700 biotech start-ups and more than 2,500 biotech companies working at present in the country.
“This portal will strengthen inter-departmental synergies and bring accountability, transparency and efficacy in functioning of agencies regulating various aspects of biological research and issuing permission,” he added.
The minister further added that at present, there is no mechanism to track the requisite regulatory approval for a research proposal on a single portal and therefore, to provide more credibility and recognition to such biological researches, government of India has developed a web system under which each research, requiring regulatory oversight, will be identified by a unique ID called “BioRRAP ID.” He said that the portal will serve as a gateway and will help researcher to see stage of approval of their applications for regulatory clearances and to see preliminary information on all the research work being undertaken by the particular researcher and/or organisation.
The minister underlined that during pandemic, it was observed that there is need to link the applications submitted to various regulatory agencies for approval so as status of application may be seen at one place. Further, it was also felt that as a country, we should have repository of the research works being undertaken by our researchers working in public and private sector. This will not only help us in understanding our scientific strength and expertise, but also in formulation of enabling policies to garner the fruits of scientific research.
In his address, Dr Rajesh S Gokhale, Secretary, DBT, said, “BioRRAP has been developed that generates BioRRAP ID for all the research applications submitted on this portal and using this BioRRAP Id, further submission process to respective regulatory agencies has to be initiated based on the research application. He said, this portal is dedicated only for research-related activities, and not for product development.”