Question : CHEMICALS AND BIOCHEMICALS

(a) whether the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) initiated a National Facility to Centre for Biochemicals Technology (CBT) for importing Chemicals and Biochemicals;

(b) if so, the quantity and the cost (in dollars) of the Chemicals and Biochemicals imported during the last three years, year-wise;

(c) whether DBT used to produce Biochemicals indegenously;

(d) if so, the details of quantity of Biochemicals produced/distributed and the money received from the sale during the last three years, year-wise and category-wise;

(e) whether the production of the said Biochemicals has been discontinued; and

(f) if so, the reasons therefor?

MINISTER FOR HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (DR. MURLI MANOHAR JOSHI)


(a) Yes Sir, The national facility for import and distribution of fine chemicals was established at Centre for Biochemicals (now known as Centre for Biochemical Technology) in April 1987 under a MoU between Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and CSIR with the objective ‘to ensure that fine chemicals and biochemicals required in biological research are made available expeditiously through centralised import and distribution network’.


(b) Various quantitative measures are used for different biochemicals which cannot be aggregated; the value of imported biochemicals in last three years is given in the table below:

(Value in US Dollars)
Category	Year	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99
Molecular biologicals	64,683	95,284	52,949
Separation products	38,229	19,538	18,532
Cell culture products	34,611	10,821	10,590
Organic biochemicals	22,128	24,347	21,180
General biochemicals	76,882	77,550	66,187
Biochemicals for newer
areas of R&D e.g.
genomics etc.	47,094	73,041	95,309
Total value US$	2,83,627 3,00,581 2,64,747
No.of Laboratories served	657	778 852

	Value in Rs.lakh
Category	Year	1996-97 1997-98 1998-99
Six biochemicals and
extractss for diagnostic
and therapy purpose	5.0	4.1	4.2