India Advances Bio-AI Revolution Under BioE3 Policy for Biomanufacturing

The BioE3 Policy represents not only a policy shift but also a national commitment to drive bio-innovation through structured research, entrepreneurship, and ecosystem development.

In a strategic and visionary step to place India at the forefront of biotechnology innovation, the Union Cabinet, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, approved the BioE3 Policy—short for Biotechnology for Economy, Environment, and Employment—in August 2024. This ambitious policy initiative aims to foster high-performance biomanufacturing across the nation, integrating advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) with core biotechnology to address complex, large-scale challenges in healthcare, agriculture, and environmental sustainability.

The BioE3 Policy represents not only a policy shift but also a national commitment to drive bio-innovation through structured research, entrepreneurship, and ecosystem development. At the heart of this initiative lies the convergence of data-driven science with traditional and emerging biological systems, leveraging AI’s vast potential to decode biological complexity.

Unification of Biotechnology Schemes: Launch of Bio-RIDE

As a key structural reform following the BioE3 Policy, the Union Cabinet also approved the merging of two major umbrella schemes of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) into a consolidated framework called Biotechnology Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (Bio-RIDE). This unified scheme retains the original focus on research and innovation while introducing a significant new component—Biomanufacturing and Biofoundry—to streamline production, experimentation, and commercialization pipelines for biotech innovations.

The integrated Bio-RIDE framework enables seamless transition from lab-scale research to industrial application, thus creating a comprehensive platform that encourages both academic institutions and industrial players to collaborate under a single policy roof.

Bio-AI Hubs: Core Engine of Next-Gen Biomanufacturing

At the center of the BioE3 Policy is the development of Bio-AI hubs, envisioned as national centers of excellence where artificial intelligence meets biological innovation. These hubs are intended to operate across academia, research institutions, and industry, providing advanced computational resources, large-scale datasets, and collaborative spaces to develop cutting-edge paradigms in key sectors.

These hubs will address India's need for modern, efficient, and scalable biomanufacturing methods by tackling critical problems in:

• Health: Disease diagnostics, biomarker discovery, and molecular drug design

• Agriculture: Genomic prediction for high-yield and climate-resilient crops

• Environment: Waste bioprocessing, pollution reduction, and biodiversity conservation

The hubs aim to foster a new wave of interdisciplinary innovation by merging biotechnology with AI/ML, synthetic biology, genomics, and systems biology.

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Launch of “Moolankur” Hubs Through DBT-BIRAC Joint Call

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in collaboration with the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) has initiated a Joint Call for Proposals to establish Bio-AI hubs under the moolankur initiative. These hubs will be designed to generate transformative solutions in five thematic areas:

1. Biomolecular Design

2. Sustainable Agriculture

3. Synthetic Biology

4. Ayurveda & Traditional Medicine Integration

5. Genome Diagnostics

The unique proposition of the moolankur program is its emphasis on integrative, problem-focused research. The program invites Letters of Intent (LoIs) from multi-disciplinary teams that combine expertise in AI/ML, biotechnology, computational biology, data science, and domain-specific biological sciences.

The goal is to develop research models that are not only academically robust but also result in deployable technologies and sustainable solutions with wide social and economic impact.

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Expected Outcomes and Strategic Impact

By catalyzing innovation at the interface of AI and biology, the Bio-AI initiative aims to:

• Establish India as a global hub for AI-integrated biomanufacturing

• Boost biotech-based entrepreneurship through innovation-led start-ups

• Accelerate the development of indigenous technologies for healthcare and agriculture

• Reduce reliance on imported bioproducts and promote self-reliance (Atmanirbhar Bharat)

• Improve productivity and sustainability across multiple sectors through scientific interventions

The initiative is also expected to open new employment avenues for AI-biotech professionals and create a fertile ground for intellectual property development in the biotech space.

A Future-Oriented Policy

The BioE3 Policy and Bio-RIDE scheme mark a decisive move toward making India a global leader in next-generation biotechnology. By establishing Bio-AI hubs and fostering collaborations that cut across conventional disciplinary boundaries, the government aims to build a future-ready bioeconomy driven by knowledge, innovation, and data.

As the global race for biotech supremacy intensifies, India’s bold policy interventions, such as the BioE3, are poised to position the country at the vanguard of the biotechnology revolution.