Career Opportunities:

The sector offers career opportunities both in research and industry. It offers excellent prospects, particularly in the area of medicine and agriculture. Employment opportunities exist in research, production and marketing in the areas of medicine and healthcare, agriculture, animal husbandry, environment and industry etc. The work of biotechnologists is essentially scientific and research-oriented. Main areas of work are production of various bioprocessed materials, marketing of biotechnology products and processes in various areas, research and bioinformatics application of information technology to the management of biological information etc.

Many of the entry-level biotechnology jobs are the first of several tiers within the same general areas of responsibility in various sectors viz. Research & Development, Quality Control, Clinical Research, Manufacturing & Production, Regulatory Affairs, Information Systems and Administration etc. There are number of avenues for post Graduates in biotechnology available in drug and pharmaceutical research, public funded laboratories, chemicals, environment control, waste management, energy, agriculture, food processing and bio-process industries. Most biotechnologist find employment on a large scale in research laboratories.

As a biochemical engineer, job responsibilities exist for the design and scale-up of processes, instruments and equipment from the laboratory through the pilot plant and manufacturing process. A biochemical development engineer is involved in new product scale-up, process improvement, technology transfer and process validation activities. He or she works with various departments to ensure that processes and designs are compatible for new product technology transfer and to establish future process and equipment automation technology.

Clinical laboratory science professionals, often called medical laboratorians are vital healthcare detectives, analyses that assist physicians in patient diagnosis and treatment, as well as in disease monitoring or prevention using sophisticated biomedical instrumentation and technology including computes. Under clinical research profession, job opportunities lies as clinical research administrator, clinical coordinator, clinical programmer, clinical data specialist, drug experience coordinator, clinical research associate, animal handler and animal technicians etc. in the process of new drug development and validation trials with the human volunteers involving medicos. Laboratories in public and private sector are attracting talents and engaging biotechnology graduates as biochemists and biotechnicians.

Opportunities exist as regulatory affairs specialist, who coordinates and prepare document prepare document packages for submission to regulatory agencies, internal audits and inspections. The job helps in monitoring and improving tracking and control systems and keeps abreast of regulatory procedures and changes. As a patent administrator, professionals are responsible for preparing and coordinating all procedural documentation for patent fillings and applications, assist attorneys with the drafting and editing of patent applications and collect and evaluates supporting data.

A Biotecnologist may work in government institutes and organizations, such as CSIR and ICAR Labs, Regional Research Labs, national institutes, institutes/ centres of excellence, DBT institutes and other academic science and technology institutes through sponsored projects. A post doctoral fellowship in specialized disciplines of biotechnology is also being supported through DBT.

The programmes are promoted by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. Those who have done B. Sc in Physical, biological, agricultural, veterinary and fishery sciences, pharmacy, engineering, biosciences, technology or medicine can take this test.

Other universities and institutes offering courses in this field are:

* National Institute of Immunology,
* National Dairy Research Institute.
* Indian Agricultural Research Institute
* Indian Institute of Science
* Vellore Institute of Technology
* Amity Institute of Technology
* Institute of Bioinformatics & Biotechnology
* Rajiv Gandhi Institute of IT & Biotech,
* Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology and
* Institute of Clinical Research.

 In private sectors there are tremendous job openings for biotechnologists.

The core companies for a biotech professional are: Ranbaxy, Dr. Reddy labs,   Cipla, Glaxo, Alkem  Pharma. The textile industries also employ biotechnologists at a handsome pay scale.

There are also some major companies which provide opportunities. They are Hindustan lever, Hindustan Antibiotics, Thapar Group.

The amount of remuneration depends  upon academic qualification, institute or university  from which the degree is attained and the level of work experience. In the corporate sector, fresh IIT pass outs may get anything in the range of Rs. 70,000  to Rs. 85,000 as annual income and fresh B.Sc./B. Tech. graduates from other universities may get anything in the range of Rs. 50,000  to Rs. 70,000 as annual income. Those working in the research institutes can expect something around Rs. 60,000 as annual income.

A degree in Biotechnology opens up the possibilities for numerous different career options. Some of these possibilities are listed below.

The minimum eligibility criteria for pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree course in Biotechnology ( B.Tech. or B.Sc. ) is the successful completion of 10 + 2 in Science. Successful completion of a Bachelor’s Degree-in Biotechnology is the minimum eligibility criteria required to do a Master’s Degree in Biotechnology. In order to do a Ph.D. in Biotechnology, one needs to have completed one’s Master’s Degree in Biotechnology. It is ideal to clear the CSIR – UGC JRF examination in order to pursue a doctoral research in Biotechnology.

One can start studying Biotechnology, even as early as in school. Biotechnology, as a subject, is offered in Class XI in over 500 schools in the country.