Bangalore: The Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka, Vision Group on Biotechnology and MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications today announced that Bangalore India Bio (BIB) 2013 will be held from February 4-6, 2013 at the Lalit Ashok Hotel, Bangalore.

The announcement was made today by Shri I S N Prasad, IAS, principal secretary to Government, Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science and Technology, in the presence of Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson, Karnataka's Vision Group on Biotechnology and CMD, Biocon, and Mr Subir Hari Singh, IAS, additional chief secretary, Government of Karnataka.

Highlighting the point that Karnataka is working closely with the biotechnology industry, Shri I S N Prasad said that, "there will be new highlights at the 13th edition of the BIB. We hope that the incubation center for biotechnology will be completed by March. We are also building a large biotech park in Electronics City, Bangalore, through the help of Alexandria Park, which we hope will be operational in the next two years."

Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw gave an insight on what to expect at the 13th BIB. She highlighted that, "This year we want to address various aspects of biotechnology. Biotechnology has a key role to play in food, healthcare, environment and energy and hence this year's theme for BIB is 'Biotech for a better tomorrow'. The conference this year will have a different look and feel."

Dr Shaw mentioned that BIB is partnering with very select partners such as the National Innovation Center (NIC), in order to put an interesting session on the innovations from this field. BIB is also partnering with the Indian Institute of Bangalore (IIM-B) and will have a session on how to translate a concept into a business. This session is expected to be useful for young entrepreneurs. Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology (IBAB) is also expected to have a session and talk about the upcoming in-silico technology. The BIB conference this year will have a session on agri-biotech, which will focus not only on transgenics technology but also on other domains. "There is more that biotechnology can offer in agriculture apart from just transgenics and the session will focus on this," said Dr Shaw.