The Chief Minister, Dharam Singh, said here on Sunday that the State Government, while being committed to the welfare of farmers and the poor, would accord high priority to information technology and biotechnology, as had been done by the previous Congress Government. Inaugurating the fourth biotechnology trade show of the State, Bangalore Bio 2004, Mr. Singh promised an initial investment of Rs. 10 crores for the proposed biotechnology park, Bangalore Helix, on the outskirts of the city. The money would be used to upgrade infrastructure of the Institute of Biotechnology and Applied Biology and the Centre for Human Genetics, both started with partial State assistance. About Rs. 3 crores had already been released, and the Centre had been requested to provide Rs. 50 crores for the park, he added. The institute is to be shifted to phase 1 of the biotechnology park, which will come up on 40 hectares of land adjacent to the Electronics City. It offers a three-semester postgraduate programme in bioinformatics, including a six-month internship in the industry.
