Telangana to Skill 50,000 Graduates for Life Sciences

Hyderabad, Feb 28 (PTI) The Telangana government aims to skill 50,000 local graduates over five to six years to make them industry-ready for life sciences research and manufacturing, Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu said on Wednesday.

Speaking at BioAsia, a healthcare and life sciences annual event being held here, he said a pilot batch under the government's skilling initiative with two specialised courses -- medicinal chemistry and analytical chemistry -- will be started in a weeks' time.

"Our vision is to expand a strong workforce by skilling nearly 50,000 local graduates over 5-6 years to make them industry-ready for life sciences research and manufacturing. In a weeks' time, we will start the pilot batch under our skilling initiative with two specialised courses – medicinal chemistry and analytical chemistry," he said.

With regard to setting up a clinical registry, the government has initiated the process to pilot at three sites starting with Hemophilia indication, the minister said.

Having a clinical registry will not only enhance healthcare outcomes but also facilitate better allocation and utilisation of resources, he further said.

Babu said the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Telangana (C4IR Telangana) which was inaugurated by him on Wednesday stands as a testament to the state government's solid commitment to the betterment of society, particularly in the area of healthcare and health technology.

Looking ahead, C4IR Telangana envisions creating over 10,000 new job opportunities in health-tech besides the R&D and manufacturing jobs, nurturing 20-25 emerging companies and startups, and generating 10-25 novel ideas through its registry, he said.

Telangana contributes 40 per cent of India's pharma production. It is not only a hub for manufacturing, producing more than one-third of the global vaccine supply, nearly 14 billion doses annually, but it is also home to over 1,000 global healthcare and life science companies, the minister said.