Give us an overview of the bioindustrial sector in India, its growth, drivers etc.
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GS Krishanan
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Bioindustrial sector in India is picking up. However, the sector in China is seven to eight times bigger than India. The segment itself is growing at a double digit (11 per cent) in India, however, is a miniscule part of the global bioindustrial sector. The sector offers sustainable solutions for industries such as textile, leather pulp and paper, which face challenges such as groundwater pollution, wastewater treatment etc where biotechnology can provide viable solutions. As an example, the Chinese government has taken serious initiatives in this sector, recommending biotechnological solutions. In India, even as the potential is huge, the segment, is growing slowly. We need to realise that if we need to be competitive in the global marketplace, we have to adopt biotech solutions.
What are some of the challenges in the Indian market?
Challenges are more regulatory in nature. For eg in the food segment, the Food and Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is inching towards having its standards at par with international standards, however, it still takes three to five years to get an approval for a new enzyme. Regulatory approval is serious and cumbersome worldwide but the process needs to speed up in India. Secondly, there are regulations already which are not enforced.
What are the areas in which Novozymes is developing newer applications?
Textile and detergents followed by biofuels would be the growth sectors for us from an Indian perspective, going forward. Enzymatic detergents which today form 30 per cent of the total detergent market, are catching up in India and offer tremendous opportunities. Textiles finds application in the laundry and to a certain extent the mills sector. In the mills sector, water conservation and reduction of water pollution are concerns of the industry where enzymes would help. Scouring, a technique that helps removal of impurities before the yarn is processed is done by caustic today which leads to pollution. An enzymatic application here is being developed that we think will be a game changer going forward. Similarly, biofuels today are from first generation ethanol from molasses, with little or no use of enzymes We are talking of the future, which will be second generation ethanol or cellulosic ethanol or ethanol from agricultural residues. This sector is new and developing and would be the future growth area from a global perspective. Ten years ago, the price of cellulosic ethanol was a cause of concern, however, with continuous innovation and optimisation of enzymes, we have brought it down to one tenth of its initial value.
What are the R&D efforts of the company and the focus areas?
Novozymes invests 13-14 per cent of its revenues in R&D. We not only look at discovery of new enzymes but also application development- existing enzymes and a specific new application, as well as specific India related application development. Globally, sandwich breads are used whereas Indians use lawn bread, or roti and we have been successful in looking at this. When it comes to enzymatic detergents, we are now looking beyond common stains such as sauce stain and cheese stains to curry stains. Curry stains is a combination of oil, fat, turmeric and other spices and are stubborn to get rid of. Indian R&D with our innovation centre at Bangalore contributes to global R&D and also looks at local application in collaboration with our partners.
Finally, what do you see as the technology of the future?
With the huge oil import bill making headlines in India recently, biofuels would be the answer to our woes. As per the Biofuel policy announced in 2008, we want to achieve 20 per cent of ethanol blending by 2017 and even today we have not been able to achieve two to three per cent with challenges on interstate duty etc. We at Novozymes understand that there is a need to promote and support second generation biofuels if we need to get over fuel shortage. We are playing the role of a thought leader in this segment in collaboration with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and other industry associations. We are looking at seeing the first commercial facility coming from second generation ethanol from Praj industries. The next challenge is government support and incentives to further push this forward. It will reduce oil imports and current account deficit.