"Giving commensurate output is the real challenge "

Under Dr V Prakash’s leadership, CFTRI has filed for a whopping 623 patents. He is the key driving force behind the institute supporting rural livelihood on one hand and entrepreneurship development on the other. He spoke to BioSpectrum about how can India make its mark globally while addressing the basic food and health issues in the country.

You have been the recipient of a large number of awards throughout your illustrious career, is the Padma Shri special to you?

Well, certainly Padma Shri is special since at a national level when you are recognized, firstly you feel proud as an Indian and it enthuses one to work more to reach out to the people and reminds you that you have more miles to go untiringly. It is a catalyzing fuel to your untiring journey and I am grateful to this wonderful country for the honor bestowed on me. It empowers and enthuses me to work more to reach out to the society better.

Having worked over the last 33 years in the area of life sciences and biotechnology how has been your experience and how is the picture changing?

The area of life sciences, especially biotechnology is highly dynamic and ever changing. Looking back as a graduate student working on proteins, one of the thrills for us was to get a single band based on SDS page or a single sharp symmetrical peak in analytical centrifuge as one isolates a pure protein. My first paper in JBC as a PhD student was a thriller to me. But things have changed and as I have seen in this long journey, especially in the field of life sciences which has given so much more to the society (including health) that the niche areas as they are getting carved are becoming borderless and merging. But I also see that with the large amount of funds being invested in today’s infrastructure, we must have commensurate output, which is the real challenge. I would like to challenge that to myself to motivate me to work more. But we need focus. In the beginning years of biotechnology we had to spread thin and venture into many areas. Today if one does not focus, perhaps we may miss making that impact globally. We have to make the picture change by a clear vision and achievable targets to India in biotechnology with a clear mandate. A great potential, provided we leverage it strategically and with an eye on global developments, markets and national requirements.

Nearly a decade as I have headed this wonderful institution, CFTRI, the journey has been fascinating and a challenge every day. I started as a research fellow in 1970’s, pool officer in 1981 and director in 1994 of the same institution, one gets into a unique ambience of working with teachers, colleagues and students—a rare opportunity indeed. During this journey of nearly 10 years as director, what I have found is that understanding fellow colleagues and taking them together as "Team CFTRI" has been the most important agenda for me. It requires not only leading the way but also understanding the path and a daring venture to enter new paths with the responsibility of assuring success. That is not easy. You may take up a small project alone and may not be successful, but when you are taking 70-80 people of the institute in a project, the success has to be visible and carved out and is certainly a greater challenge than one can think of.

During the past ten years you have been successfully steering CFTRI to great heights, what are the challenges that you faced? And what are some of the key initiatives that you have launched/introduced?

Many initiatives such as putting the institute on the world map, making it the leading institute in IPR filing, new projects in biotechnological area such as infrastructure facility for protein engineering; codex laboratory a national facility, advanced pilot plant facility, modern wheat and maize mill, upgrading the instrument facility for state of art, the fruits and vegetables pilot plant, new courses initiatives including e-college, patent cell not only to file patent but also database creation, patent fighting at international levels, ISO-9001-2000 certification for the institution, NABL accreditation for the institute are a few to mention and the list is long. All these are achievable due to "team effort" and I am proud for the untiring effort of my colleagues, which has made the difference.

India today is in a unique position in biotechnology. Firstly excellent HRD awareness and wonderful places of work around the country where the infrastructure is world class. We also have the other extremes where some of the colleagues do talk of biotechnology but hardly any infrastructure or facility is there. We have to bridge the two. We need to work on problems relevant to our country apart from globally challenging problems. Also, we have to be partners in big global challenges if we have to make an impact like HGP, rice genome etc. However, I do not understand why we cannot be leading a global program on a problem relevant to India and make others as partners? What is inhibiting us is in that leadership? Who has to bell the cat or the tiger? There are some attempts but we have to take it up as national agenda with international participation of the knowledge base. In the area of food, what is holding us back in biotech approach to work on pulses, coarse grains and legumes? We see the "wasted lands" but the challenge is if pulses production is stagnant for 30 years not because of any other reason but perhaps an incremental push into that area where a farmer or grower can cultivate the marginal crops in wasted land would be a great boon to production and productivity in the national grain bowl. It is a challenge and must be addressed through a massive networking biotechnological project with a clear goal. Of course there are other areas such as preventive aspects of diseases (health), immunization, addressing tropical diseases, understanding the traditional medicines etc. All have to of course go on in parallel so that to address the problems of 1.1 billion plus population and the biodiversity we have, one requires the entire gamut of science and technology to reach out and just not a few projects, the ‘all eggs in one basket’ syndrome as we know is not the correct approach.

How do you think India can realize its potential in biotechnology?

I guess it has to do with health and food, the primary requirements to begin with we are already addressing these issues perhaps if biotechnology can focus and address the issues of prevention of diseases and curing certain chronic diseases on the one hand and in the area of food if productivity is increased without use of chemicals and use eco-friendly technologies, our next generation will be highly grateful to us. We must also interlink information and communication technology for sustainable use of biotechnology for reach out and value addition. India has a great potential, provided our planning and implementation go hand in hand especially in the area of outreach. There is a gap and we must ensure it is minimized and addressed dynamically.

What is the one thing in biotechnology, which has the power to change the face of the country?

I do not think there is a solution like one thing and a miracle! It must be multiple approaches for India as I have mentioned above. However to focus on biotechnology, one must address the common problems that India is facing and be a solution provider on the one hand and on the other hand we must be able to do the highest of the basic research in biotechnology with the wonderful biodiversity, infrastructure and HR that we have. In that challenge of biotechnology, let us not be carried away by the word biotechnology as a packet or package but look at it as a wonderful synergy of many areas, which India is proud of. Perhaps, it is only then we see the networking and use that "Team India" power through "Knowledge India".

What is the message for the biotech industry and the policy makers?

First of all let us be proud as Indians and have the confidence that we can do things even if it seems impossible. Secondly, let us work as a team to solve the problems in minimum time for a global reach out with national agenda. Thirdly, if together we as scientists, industrialists, technocrats, policy makers, consumers and all concerned join together to ensure that the 300 million odd children and needy who go to bed with hardly one meal a day are able to afford one more nutritious meal through empowerment of their families for a sustainable livelihood, perhaps we have at least gone one step ahead.

I personally as a recipient of Padma Shri would be more than happy that if this recognition at least empowers me to reach those needy millions who are perhaps the true reflection of the needy section of the 1.1 billion plus people of my country, may be it is worth it all.

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