Friday, April 15, 2005

Biotech education hotspots in India....

This link on India's top "biotech" schools was recently sent to me by a friend. Amongst other things, it stated that my old alma mater, Anna University's Industrial Biotechnology program was ranked second in India. Yeehaw and good for me. However, that being said, I do believe that almost all these schools still have a lot to be desired.

The areas they lack most in are (1) Infrastructure (2) faculty and faculty encouragement (3) opportunities for research and (4) sufficient exposure to the various areas of research in the field. It has to be remembered that this is an extremely expensive field since it involves costly equipment, reagents, media and cell culture facilities. Computational biology/informatics is just one small area in this field (though Indian media goes gaga over it), and even in this area (India's strength) the infrastructure is poor (with student:computer rations in the range of 20:1 or something like that). And an even greater absence of dedicated clusters/servers for this purpose. In addition, a majority of the faculty members sink into a comfort zone with their positions, and there is insufficient incentive for them (and a shortage of funds) to pursue meaningful research, or publish their work. Most students are also not seriously encouraged to take up higher impact projects, but can "wing" their way through a thesis. Finally, the industry-academia interaction (atleast in most schools) is very limited, with only limited opportunities for long internships or research projects in R&D labs.

As far as research goes, only a few premier Institutes in India (IISc, NCBS, TIFR to name a few) carry out world class research in the biological sciences. Small innovative biotech companies are yet to come up, and most larger pharma companies are only slowly emerging out of their "reverse engineering/process patent" mindset. Their investments in R&D remain stunningly low, and students have little opportunity to make use of industry resources or facilities.

So, there's still a long way to go before "biotech" education in India becomes truely competitive.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr Laxman
Thanks for putting this Blog. I could get some very useful information on Biotech Education in India,


Ajay Opal

Anonymous said...

for admission in biotechnology in top college of bangalore affiliated to BANGALORE UNIVERSITY WITH MOST ADVANCED BIOTECH LABS AND PLACEMENTS. PLEASE CONTACT MR. GIRISH ANAND,REGISTRAR,GARDEN CITY COLLEGE BANGALORE AT PH NO 09815251023. EMAIL:-admissiongcc@gmail.com
WE HAVE NO AGENTS.FOR ALL ADMISSION DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT AT THE ABOVE PH NO IMMEDIATELY. LAST DATE APPROACHING.
ALSO CONTAQCT FOR ADMISSION IN BIOTECH,GENETICS,MICROBIOLOGY,FASHION DESIGNING,BBM,JOURNALISM,HOTEL MANAGEMENT,MBA,MCA,BCA,MTA,MSW IN BANGALORE. TEL NO IS 09815251023.
WE HAVE NO AGENTS ANYWHERE!!!

Anonymous said...

very genuine. college is really kool n the person is very influential n holding top position.at lreast i am very happy withy the deceision i took for my ward.

Anonymous said...

thanks at last i received admission in the college of my dreams. thanks Mr Girish for all that you have done for me as it is extremely difficult to find genuine ppl like you.
thanks amit gupta

Anonymous said...

good college.

Anonymous said...

good college but one has to work real hard

Anonymous said...

excellent college. there 24 hrs help line no 9815251023 is of great help to the student community

Anonymous said...

Hi All,

I would like to put a reality in front of all the users/ viewers of this site that GARDEN CITY COLLEGE BANGALORE, is not what is told to the people by AGENTS like GIRISH ANAND. There are few important, real and religiously honest points / truth :

1.GIRISH ANAND is not any Registrar of the college he is just an AGENT, who's paid around 5000 Rs. by college for getting them an admission from NORTH INDIA, rate also varies from course to course and time to time.

2. Prospectus of the GARDEN CITY COLLEGE BANGALORE never mentions of the year of admission and NO FEE DETAILS in Prospectus, they only give a Fee Details on a separate Print out paper- Point to be noted.

3. Fees varies from person to person.

4. They have 2 college - GARDEN CITY COLLEGE BANGALORE and CAPITAL COLLEGE, so they take students for both college by fooling people that they are being admitted to GARDEN CITY COLLEGE BANGALORE, but actually few days later they are thrown to CAPITAL COLLEGE.

4. Number of seats in B.Sc Bio-Tech are almost 350 in GARDEN CITY COLLEGE BANGALORE and 60 to 120 in CAPITAL COLLEGE.So imagine the ration student and faculty and so on the focus on one student.... almost negligible.
BIO-TECH was a boom / hype created by media, but actually the real scenario is different.People with Bio-Tech degrees are sitting in Call Centers..., but now the Bubble has burst and realty has come to people it may take some more time to spread the truth of Bangalore Bio- tech admission, in any college admissions have gone drastically down.

5. Any time a person calls the agent - GIRISH ANAND for admission. He tells that there are very few seats left out (may be last 2 or 3 seats left). You can try, even if you are not interested for any admission.

6. AGENTS are just a like a POLITICIAN, they will try to be very very sweet while talking to the people for admission but main motto is to trap new guys by showing them the dreams of BANGALORE and the course's future and all fake promises about college but later on the student realizes the bitter reality.

7. I do agree about the college's INFRA- STRUCTURE, its good. but the goodness is only limited to buildings but what about the staff or the people inside the buildings.
You might see big labs but what about the practicals happening there -Who knows? you cant see that.?????????????????????? big time suffering or say next to torture.

8. All the Anonymous blogs on this site are put by AGENTS to get admission and few other in favor of college(again by themselves, or just by using different name).

9. If any one interested for admission to any course in the college, just walk down to Bangalore to the college and directly talk to the senior students / pass out students - ask them for fearless & honest comments and them walk into college office and go ahead if interested.

10. Their Prospectus is designed in such a beautiful way using the photos that any one can be impressed, but People - i request you don't go for all this showy things. Look out for real features/ data.
11.And lot more these are just few things.......

Anonymous said...

Few people come to Bangalore for studying only due to few reasons:

1. Ghar ki murgi, Dal brabar.
They don't value the institutes in their own area / region/ state etc.

2.Door kay Dhol suhaney.
Things in other's hands look more better or say Music sounds better from a distance.
Using these two points, people are influenced easily and once impressed means gone.

Just take few moments and try to realize, if its not true.

Anonymous said...

it appears that the guy who has written the above blog appears to be a frustrated lot.I too have passed from the college in year 2006 & am well adjusted in a leading pharma company.strange this alumini of the college is defaming the college & their staff for his ulterior motive & malafide intentions. I am sure this saddistic guy is from some rival college n just demaing the college to meet his selfish interests.and yaa please tell this guy to see the impressive alumini placement list before barking in a public platform.

Gate biotechnology said...

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