The Confederation of Indian Industry is organising the first international exhibition and conference on biotechnology, called Biotech India 2003, in New Delhi next month.

The event will coincide with CII's fifteenth International Engineering and Technology Fair 2003 to be held during February 5-8.

"The event will focus on emerging technologies, breakthrough research and ways of harnessing it for global business development," said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson of CII's committee on biotechnology said.

"Consequent to CII's delegations to the UK, Canada and the US, we have managed to attract significant international interest in this fair," she said.

The market for biotech products in India is expected to reach $1.8 billion this year.

"The growth can be attributed to easy availability of trained manpower, vast knowledge base, growing multinational collaborations, indigenous R&D efforts and well-developed pharmaceuticals and seeds industries," said Shaw.

Vaccines, diagnostics and bioactive therapeutic proteins, hybrid seeds, tissue culture, biopesticides and biofertilisers in the agriculture sector were opening up vast opportunities, she said.

Leading international speakers from various countries across the world will deliberate on frontier technologies in agriculture, new age therapies, bioinformatics and genomics, and environmental biotechnologies.

"It will be a unique fair covering all aspects of technology and business in biotechnology," said Shaw.

The fair will offer several benefits to industry, including interface with industry players and user community, attracting foreign and domestic capital, and evaluating export potential.