Achieving vaccine equity is one of the most critical global health challenges. This is especially true in low and middle-income countries, where access barriers persist despite scientific advances. This chapter examines how platform technologies, such as mRNA, viral vectors, virus-like particles (VLPs), and nanoparticle-based delivery systems can revolutionize vaccine development and distribution. These platforms offer modular, rapidly adaptable, and scalable approaches. As a result, they enable swift responses to emerging infectious diseases and reduce time-to-market for vaccines targeting neglected diseases. The chapter also highlights how innovations such as improved thermostability, single-dose regimens, and needle-free delivery enhance access in resource-limited settings. Additionally, digital health tools, decentralized manufacturing, and open-source licensing models are revolutionizing the delivery of vaccines to the last mile. By bridging the gap from laboratory breakthroughs to equitable immunization, platform technologies offer a sustainable path toward global vaccine justice.
Global vaccine access has improved significantly since 2000, driven by initiatives like WHO's Expanded Programme on Immunization, Gavi, and the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network. These programs have expanded vaccine coverage from basic childhood immunizations to include newer vaccines like hepatitis B, Hib, and rotavirus, helping to promote vaccine equity in low-and middle-income countries. Despite progress, significant disparities persist. High-income countries enjoy near-universal coverage, while LICs continue to struggle with supply constraints, inadequate funding, and limited domestic manufacturing capacity. India, a key global vaccine supplier, has played a pivotal role in supplying affordable vaccines to developing nations. However, COVID pandemic disrupted its export dominance as domestic vaccination were taken on priority, allowing competitors like China to gain market share. Indian vaccine industry is largely driven by private manufacturers with heavy reliance on traditional vaccines, while increasingly relying on expensive imports for newer formulations. To meet growing domestic demand and sustain its global leadership in newer and beyond COVID vaccines, India must revitalize public sector capacity, invest in innovative vaccine technologies, and expand its reach into high-income markets. By leveraging its credibility through procurement and technology transfer platforms, India can address global vaccine inequity and ensure a sustainable, affordable supply to developing nations.
This paper analyses the impact of legal and policy reforms during the 'second green revolution' phase on farmers' customary rights and livelihood, particularly in the context of the extension of private property rights to over plant varieties and seeds. The paper discusses conceptual narrations of plant genetic resources such as "common heritage", to "national resources" and now "private property resources". The paper also deals with North-South deliberations over the conceptual background of farmers' rights before various international organisations. The paper argues that the transition from the state interventionism that characterized the First Green Revolution phase to the state abstentionism that characterizes the present corporate-led Second Green Revolution phase, has influenced customary practices and traditional knowledge relating to agricultural activities, the breaking of the traditional supply chain leading to soaring costs of seeds and varieties, relaxation of land acquisition procedures etc.. The paper analyses the points of interference with the right to sustainable production of farmers. This paper traces legal and policy reforms by analysing primary policy documents such as Five Year Plans, the Economic Survey of India, Union Budgetary Speeches, International Conventions by various international organisations and national legislations such as the Bio-diversity Act, 2002 and the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001 along with the Seed Bills of 2004, 2011 and 2019.
Fair access to safe and effective vaccines depends not only on new scientific discoveries but also on being able to produce large quantities of vaccines of consistently high quality. This chapter explores the intricate frameworks that uphold vaccine quality throughout the entire product life cycle. It examines the importance of robust manufacturing methods, effective regulatory checks, and global standards, such as WHO prequalification and NRA maturity levels. Particular emphasis is placed on technology transfer, both from research and development to manufacturing and across global production sites, as a strategic enabler of quality continuity and equitable access. By examining quality management, global standards, and training programs, the chapter demonstrates how quality is maintained in various production settings. Ultimately, it asserts that maintaining manufacturing excellence, through harmonised standards, transparent regulatory pathways, effective technology transfer, and mature NRAs, forms the foundation of vaccine equity and pandemic preparedness.
India's experience with genetically modified (GM) crops began with the approval of Bt cotton in 2002, which demonstrated clear benefits in yield enhancement and reduction in pesticide use. However, the development and release of other GM crops, such as Bt brinjal and GM mustard (DMH-11), have encountered prolonged regulatory hurdles, judicial interventions, and public skepticism. The emergence of CRISPR-based genome editing offers new possibilities for precision crop improvement under a differentiated regulatory framework. This paper reviews India's legal, institutional, and policy evolution regarding GM and genome-edited crops, situates it within the international context, and highlights the Supreme Court's recent directive (2024) for formulating a comprehensive national policy. Drawing from global and Indian evidence, it proposes abalanced, science-based, and farmer-centric approach to managing biotechnology innovations that enhance productivity, ensure biosafety, and strengthen India's agricultural resilience.
This paper examines the question of vaccine access in India by situating the COVID-19 crisis within the longer history of state policy and global pharmaceutical politics. Despite possessing one of the world's largest vaccine manufacturing capacities, India witnessed an estimated 3.2-6.5 million excess deaths during the first two pandemic waves. This paradox underscores structural weaknesses in vaccine governance, particularly the state's retreat from building and sustaining public-sector capacity. Through historical and documentary analysis, the paper considers two cases: India's reliance on imported oral polio vaccines during eradication campaigns, and its approach to vaccine access during COVID-19. Both reveal how dependence on imports, private production, and intellectual property regimes has constrained equitable access. The paper revisits the Hathi Committee's (1975) call for healthcare as a "national charge", where social needs take precedence over market logics. In contrast, contemporary policy is increasingly shaped by public-private partnerships and the aggressive monopolisation of pharmaceutical markets, raising concerns over long-term vaccine security. The paper argues that India must reimagine its vaccine policy in the post-pandemic era by investing in robust public-sector capacity alongside private innovation. Such a shift is essential not only to resist the appropriation of health by market forces but also to reaffirm vaccine security and public health as fundamental responsibilities of the democratic state.
Biotechnology is increasingly critical in addressing the complex socio-economic issues developing countries face, such as food insecurity, public health crises, and environmental degradation. This review explores the potential of biotechnology to drive sustainable development in these regions, focusing on its applications in agriculture, healthcare, and environmental management. By evaluating both the benefits and the challenges, the article provides an overview of the factors affecting the adoption of biotechnological innovations, including regulatory frameworks, technical capacity, infrastructure, and cultural attitudes. The review emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations, international collaboration, and the creation of inclusive policies to ensure that biotechnology contributes equitably to the socio-economic progress of developing countries.
This study examines the challenges of building an innovation ecosystem for Emerging Medical Diagnostics (EMDs) in India, focusing on advanced biomedical technologies such as molecular biology, gene editing, and synthetic biology, which could address India's context-specific diagnostic needs. Using the Transformational System Failure (TSF) framework, the study highlights systemic weaknesses that hinder system-building activities of key innovation actors. Four components of TSF- Directionality, Demand Articulation, Policy Coordination, and Reflexivity are used to analyse barriers to socio-technical transitions. The analysis has been done using mixed-method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data, draws on multiple sources including SCOPUS, Web of Science, Patent Scope, National Science & Technology Management Information System (NSTMIS), and annual reports of major stakeholders. The findings reveal that India's EMD innovation ecosystem remains in a formative stage. Among government bodies, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) emerges as the most proactive, supporting the sector through grants, exchange programs, training, and startup aid, while contributions from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and Department of Science and Technology (DST) are comparatively limited. Further, the analysis shows only a sparse presence of domestic startups, largely at early stages of development. Major barriers include inadequate hands-on training, weak collaboration among a small researcher pool, and the absence of dedicated canters of excellence. The study calls for a well-defined policy framework, targeted government interventions, and tailored policy instruments drawing on lessons from the U.S. and China to strengthen India's EMDs innovation ecosystem.
Social determinants of health play a significant role in managing tuberculosis (TB). Controlling tuberculosis, therefore, requires an inclusive health policy and a model of socially responsible innovation. TB is a social disease eliminating which may require a mix of biomedical and social interventions. The pre-antibiotic era utilised TB sanatoriums for disease management. This paper explores the relevance of a sanatoria model in the current context where modern biology and biotechnology applications are predominant. A case study of Shri Brij Seva Samiti TB Sanatorium, Vrindavan (TBSV) in TB management is presented as a socially responsible innovation model by utilising qualitative research methods and developing a novel analytical framework for socially responsible innovation by adapting the theoretical principles of responsible and social innovation. TBSV combines faith, its core cultural beliefs, and its close linkage with the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP). TBSV provides patients with quality care, nutrition and clean open-air area to recover. Patients are diagnosed timely using latest diagnostics, are enrolled in Ni-kshay to receive anti-tubercular treatment (ATT) and other social incentives which help TBSV to emerge as a powerful actor in TB control in the district. It also discusses the role of TB sanatoriums in the success of NTEP from a public health perspective as well as the innovations in biotechnology and their adaptation in combination with a sanitorium-based care model that can lead to NTEP nearing its goal of TB elimination as per the goals set in the National Strategic Plan 2017-25 (NSP).
The growing global population and manifold implications of climate change have created the need for sustainable agricultural practices and climate- resilient crop varieties. In the past decades, development of transgenic crop varieties has augmented the output of the agriculture sector. However, owing to the transgenic crops biosafety concerns, limited dissemination of information and awareness about the GM crops in public purview, and constraints of regulatory policies country-wise, several useful crop varieties have been pending approvals for commercial release to market. Second-generation gene- editing technologies like CRISPR/Cas9 have emerged as a groundbreaking tool for precise and efficient genome editing of crop plants enabling enhanced crop productivity, quality, and resilience to abiotic and biotic stresses. Moreover, such CRISPR genome-edited crops are not bound by stringent regulations like GM crops. Therefore, effective scientific and technological cooperation needs a well-defined policy framework to enable the efficient use and sharing of such technologies across countries. The flow of technology and knowledge can take place without any political and regulatory hindrances thereby generating positive public perception about these technologies and saving time, resources, and manpower across countries. Finally, the proposed article stresses the harmonization of the regulatory framework for advancing scientific and technological cooperation in the agriculture sector.
Integrating drones in Indian agriculture presents a transformative potential, ushering in a new era of sustainable farming practices. In India, various incidents tell a story of how pesticides, seeds, and many more applications, once deemed a boon for agricultural progress, have gradually unfolded into a complex web of ecological and health challenges. Presently, the case of drones for spraying purposes in agriculture brings forth compiling advantages. These include enhanced precision in results, alleviation of the diverse adverse effects linked with manual spraying methods, operational feasibility in inclement weather conditions, utility in cultivating tall -standing crops and addressing the complexities of manual spraying for crops such as paddy and sugarcane. This paper explores the role of drones in promoting spraying applications in Indian agriculture. The study addresses two research questions: how can the utilisation of drones for spraying applications contribute to the sustainability of Indian agriculture, and how can drone -assisted spraying applications contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Indian agriculture? To accomplish this, a responsible innovation approach is adopted as a theoretical framework to explore the dimensions of innovations in drone mounted spraying in Indian agriculture, juxtaposed by erratic weather conditions and knitted by diverse values and norms. The snowball sampling technique was employed to identify the interviewees and collect qualitative data. For this, in-depth interviews were conducted in person or by using Zoom. The findings suggest that efficiency, capability, effectiveness, gender equality, trust, and accuracy are certain values embedded in drone technology that assist in achieving the SDGs in Indian agriculture.
Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria are classified as microorganisms residing in the rhizosphere, possessing diverse capabilities linked to plant development and well-being. PGPRs through various direct and indirect mechanisms, exert their influence on plant development. The advantages offered by these bacteria encompass heightened accessibility to nutrients, synthesis of phytohormones, facilitation of shoot and root growth, defense against numerous plant pathogens, and diminished disease susceptibility. Furthermore, PGPR contributes to plant resilience against environmental stresses like salinity and drought, alongside the synthesis of enzymes that mitigate the damaging effects of heavy metals. In the realm of sustainable agriculture, PGPR has emerged as a pivotal strategy, showcasing the potential to curtail the reliance on synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. This is achieved by fostering plant vigour and health, as well as augmenting soil quality. While a multitude of investigations regarding PGPR can be found in the literature, this review places emphasis on studies that have practically applied PGPR to sustainable production. These applications enable a reduction in the consumption of fertilisers like phosphorus and nitrogen, as well as fungicides, while concurrently enhancing nutrient absorption. With the overarching aim of advancing sustainable agricultural practices, diverse aspects are covered in this review, including various government schemes and initiatives, innovative fertilisation methods, the role of seed microbiomes in rhizosphere colonisation, the diversity of rhizospheric microorganisms, nitrogen fixation as a means to minimise chemical fertiliser use, phosphorus solubilisation and mineralisation, and the synthesis of siderophores and phytohormones to decrease reliance on fungicides and pesticides.
The global diffusion of biotechnology has played a pivotal role in restructuring the global order in the post -Cold War era. Institution of a strong domestic base in biotech has arguably allowed emerging economies in the Global South to negotiate with developed countries from a position of strength. This paper critically examines the rise of Brazil as a case in point to examine the role of biotechnology as a great equaliser of power in North -South relations. It identifies the institution of a strong domestic biotechnology base as a primary facilitator of Brazil's emergence as a globally influential player. The paper does so through delineating the various means through which Brazil has drawn from biotechnology to boost its international image and influence. Firstly, it analyses the nuances within Brazil's domestic biotechnology strategy while underlining their catalytic effect in driving fast -paced advances in the field. Brazil's policy successes with respect to genomics and biofuels are highlighted. The paper discusses Brazil's employment of biotechnology as an effective foreign policy tool in niche diplomacy ventures of health, agriculture, and biofuels to grow its clout in the Global South. Brazil's tactful ability to combine its biotechnology expertise with skilful diplomatic manoeuvring to pioneer novel normative paradigms that favour the Global South has been studied. The paper concludes that Brazil's biotechnology strategy presents a good model for emerging economies in Asia and Africa to emulate to improve their relative standing in the multipolar world.
Due to the sharp rise in world population, it is predicted that in the next 20 years, the world's energy demand would increase by 48 per cent. Currently, fossil fuels provide 80 per cent of the world's energy needs. However, the increasingly diminishing supply of fossil fuels combined with their damaging effects on the environment has generated a lot of interest in sustainable biofuels. This will facilitate the shift to a bioeconomy that must be carbon neutral. Biofuels are obtained from biomass like wood and straw, released by direct combustion of dry matter and converted into a gaseous and liquid fuel. In the ensuing decades, biofuels are anticipated to play a significant role in the transition to green energy and sustainable development. Due to their contribution to energy independence, urban and rural development, improvement of the ecological footprint, and decrease in carbon emissions, biofuels offer many appealing qualities. Despite technological advancements, the sustainability aspects of biofuel production methods are of inherent importance. In this review, we have discussed the significance of biofuel, the energy demand and supply statistics and how biofuels are the upcoming fuels playing a very important role in uplifting the global bioeconomy. but on the other aspect, it has been observed through various reports that the Carbon footprint of biofuel is also going to be a severe challenge in the coming days. Thus, before framing the policy on biofuel, it is necessary to look after all possible alternates to reduce the carbon footprint because unless the carbon emission remains the same issue, then the use of biofuel for global change may effect the bioeconomy with negative implications.
Transfer of technology (ToT) developed in research institutes to industry has been one of the most discussed areas in the recent past. ToT helps in accelerated commercialisation for rapid industrial growth and generates revenue for the institutes by monetising research outcomes. The role of TTOs in the process of developing, protecting intellectual property and disseminating technologies through licensing to spinouts or established companies has generated special interest. TTOs are academic or commercial entities that facilitate the management of intellectual property rights and ToT by bridging the gap between research and industrial needs. They provide support for collaboration and mediate relationships between different innovation stakeholders, namely academia and industry. The present article highlights the role and importance of TTOs in the Indian context with a backdrop of the ecosystem of developed countries. It also suggests the need for having TTO at individual research organisation for better outreach and academiaindustry connects. The study suggests a need for having a larger network of professional TTOs, harmonised policy for managing IP and technology and a robust tech -transfer system which will help all the stakeholders leading to creation of a large number of start-ups, job -creations and, overall, in building the robust innovation and tech -transfer ecosystem for industrial growth
Due to its numerous benefits to sustainability, product quality, and consumer health, the use of bio-enzymes in food systems has grown in significance. The importance of these enzymes in the creation of sustainable food is highlighted in this abstract. By increasing the bioavailability of vital nutrients and lowering the amount of anti -nutrients, bio-enzymes serve a critical role in boosting the nutritional value of food. By displacing artificial additives and preservatives, they also assist in the production of products with cleaner labels. Reduced food waste, increased shelf life, and consistency and flavour of food items are all made possible by bio-enzymes. Additionally, their eco-friendly sourcing and sustainable production methods meet the rising demand for food production that is environmentally conscious. The significance of bio-enzymes is growing in an era of increased sustainability goals, consumer awareness and environmental implications. The review presents studies on the utility of bio enzymes in food production and processing and in improving food quality, nutritional value, and safety and its role in the environmental impact and exploration of the latest technological developments and innovations in the food industry along with the identification of literature gaps and areas where research is scarce.
The steering and operative aspects and components of bioeconomy in different countries that may have a determining impact on the development of the regions and on the kinds of technologies and industries coming up in the short, medium and long terms have been discussed. The flavour of bioeconomy directions and their drivers as conceived in different regions have been touched upon in monetary terms over the future years, based on available data and information. The emphasis for future development in the biotech sectors for pushing up bioeconomy is different in different regions. The stress on mastering biotechnological capabilities is also dissimilar. The developments in bioeconomy plans and programmes in the European Union, UK, USA, China, India, Japan, Brazil, ASEAN countries, South Korea and Russia have been profiled. Australian plans and programmes in synthetic biology have been included. Harnessing bioeconomy is anticipated to enable more recycling of wastes and promotion of environmental sustainability. Advancement of bioeconomy is anticipated to elevate the health, longevity and living standards of people. Contributions to global GDP are anticipated to be substantial from bioeconomy activities; the horizons of more effective newer biotechnologies are appearing fast in certain bioeconomy countries. Advancement in wealth creation by developing products involving the manipulation of genes, cell lines, and natural life forms has strong societal acceptance issues. The elements of ethics and social acceptance issues, including rights to choose and legal provisions, need to be worked upon through united global forums on a precautionary principle for an undisputed sound resolution.
Due to the rise of global population, pollution, and the limitation of natural resources, sustainability is now becoming a fundamental requirement of industries. Sustainable processes support all the dimensions of ecological, social, and economic parameters. Industry 4.0 concept originated from the German industry, and the main aspect is the use of advanced technology for efficient production. Industry 4.0 comprises technologies such as digital technology, machine learning, robotics, Internet of Things, and cyber-physical systems etc. Industry 4.0 is capable to transform the traditional manufacturing units into smart factories. The biotechnology industry uses the principles of molecular biology, genetic engineering, and fermentation technology etc to produce a variety of products. Similar to the industrial revolution, the biotechnology industry also underwent a similar revolution. Biotechnology industry uses technologies like recombinant DNA technologies, metabolic engineering, and fermentation technologies. Biotechnological processes have certain limitations, like instability of biological catalysts, complex biological systems, and difficulties in upstream and downstream processes. Biotechnological processes are environment friendly and are considered, creating less harm to nature as compared to chemical industrial processes. In this article authors have discussed the role of Industry 4.0 technologies in the production of environmentally sustainable biotechnology products.
