New Delhi: President A P J Abdul Kalam on March 22 said the country needed a national biotech policy for tapping the full potential of the science and utilising it for economic development.

The policy should integrate various areas like production and marketing biotechnology-related products and should be followed in a national mission like approach, Kalam said here inaugurating a conference, 'Knowledge Millennium III – the Business of Biotechnology'.

For this, Kalam said, the country needed a combination of technology and leadership. "There is a need for leaders who facilitate respect rather than demand respect," he said.

Kalam said modern biotechnology should look into and integrate with the vast bank of traditional knowledge to get an advantageous position internationally.

Such an approach would result in reduction in the number of years needed to invent molecules important in fighting diseases such as cancer, he said, adding there were many herbs being used in the country for various ailments and there was a need to study them.

The President said with the increase in population, there was a need to apply biotechnology into agriculture, so that demand for more food could be met using less of land and water resources.

Another important area was the stem cell research, which has the potential to treat even blindness. Stem cells with their ability to get transformed into different kinds of functioning cells have offered enormous opportunities for curing diseases, he said.

The President also called for integration of IT with health and education sectors.

Science is linked to technology, which is linked to economy and to the society, he said.

A developed India would be powered by economic power, which in turn would be powered by knowledge, Kalam said, adding that in 10 years' time India should would resemble a knowledge society of which biotechnology, space technology and IT were the important components.

Appreciating the contribution of scientists like Dr J Craig Venter, president of the Centre for Advancement of Genomics, USA, for making the knowledge related to human genome "unpatentable" by keeping it in public domain, he said the conference would deliberate upon related issues.

Speaking on the occasion, Science and Technology Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi said benefits of research should reach the common man.

Industry should keep in mind the face of poor malnourished men and their needs should be met, Joshi said, adding India could become a developed country by following a path of sustainable development.

Dr J Craig Venter, who has been instrumental in unfolding of human genome, said India had the opportunity to lead the world in the area of biotechnology.

However, Budget allocation this year for research and science showed a little increase over the previous year, he said. "Countries should allocate more money for research."

PTI