The country is evolving and so is its needs in terms of food, employment, space, education, etc are increasing. Today, we can not rely on the same number of resources, as we used to earlier, with the globalization of the world, import and export of new technologies, food, people, education categories, facilities is always going on. Lifestyle, employment and survival are all related to the type of education one gets. There is always a stability point for everything, so does education and career fields have. The urge in students to opt for something new and innovative has lead to many experiments and expansions are done to satisfy the growing needs of the education industry. Few examples of such courses are mass communication, Film making, IT Networking, Naturopathy, Biotechnology, etc.

Biology is a field which has been for years related only to doctors, if a person has opted for medical subjects in his senior secondary education; it means he will become a doctor. Though there are many types of doctor, but it had become too monotonous. So, with the changing times, many new courses have evolved from the term medicine, now the students are not only restricted to MBBS degrees, there are many other options they can take as their career. Some of the professional fields open for medical students after completing their 12th are: Allopathy, naturopathy, Homeopathy, Physiotherapy, Neurology, Radiology, Pharmacy selling, Pharmacists, Biotechnology, etc.

Biotechnology is one of the recent developments in the field of medicine, as its name suggests, it’s a combination of Biology and Technology. It is also termed as Genetic engineering, all based on researches. Biotechnology as defined by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity is “Any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use”. Biotechnology is purely based on all the biological forms such as microbiology, molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, animal cell culture, embryology, and also on other forms of technology like information technology, chemical engineering, biorobotics, etc, to have an analytical and better result.

Looking at the increasing demand of researchers in the field of medicine, many students are opting for biotechnology as their career. Also, its newness and the urge of innovation has grabbed the attention of many technology freaks and is coming up as a platform for students to prove their talents. A student can opt for a biotechnology courses, right from his graduation level. Various courses for obtaining degree in Biotechnology are B. Sc., B.E., B. Tech, etc. in Biotechnology, or one can also opt for post graduation courses in Biotechnology after completing their graduation in Microbiology, Physics, Biology and chemistry.

The colleges providing graduation and post graduation courses in biotechnology are:

v     School of Life Sciences, Hyderabad

v     Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai

v     School of Biotechnology, JNU, New Delhi

v     National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal

v     University School of Biotechnology, Indraprastha University, New Delhi

v     Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology, Kerela

v     School of Biotechnology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

v     GB Panth University of Agriculture and Technology, Uttrakhand

v     Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, MS University of Baroda, Gujarat

v     Department of Biotechnology, University of Kashmir, Srinagar

The main subjects which a Biotechnology student has to undertake as a part of his curriculum are Chemistry, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Immunology, Engineering, Virology, Genetics, and other few specialization related subjects are like Plant Physiology, Crop management, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Cell Biology, Soil Science, Ecology, etc. The career prospects for students pursuing Biotechnology is great as it involves development of vaccines, medications and is also for the invention of various technologies for the diagnosis of improvisation in energy production, conservation and to increase the productivity level of various cells and seeds.

Biotechnologists can practice their skills in various research centers, marketing departments of pharma companies, chemical industries, etc. Some of such companies providing opportunities for biotechnologists are Tata Engineering Research Institute, Hindustan Liver Ltd., Indo- American Hybrid Seeds, Bivcol, Thapar Group, Biocon India Ltd, Hindustan Antibiotics, India Vaccines Cooperation, etc. Thus we can say, Biotechnology is an upcoming field which is ready to conquer the market and India for sure has a great scope for Biotechnology students.