Team SBPI

Dr. Prasanta Kumar Ghosh, the President and Founding Member of SBPI is an expert in   regulatory affairs of new biotechnology products. He has been instrumental in laying the foundation of Biosafety Guidelines of Genetically Modified products and processes in the country. A Chemical Engineer by education, he has spent more than 33years in the Government. He also received Advanced Post-Graduate Training in Pharmaceutical Technology from the State University of Ghent, Belgium. He has been as Adviser in the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) wherein he handled industrial licensing policy issues in biotechnology; establishment of certain DBT institutions; institutional technology transfers to industry; IPR evolution in biotech products; use of genetically modified substances in India; and issues relating to trans-boundary movement of Living Modified Organisms. His scientific contributions include   invention of a novel helical coil heat-exchanger design; production techniques of polymeric hydrophilic nanoparticles by micelle and reverse micelle polymerization methods; novel accelerated coir pith composting technique; development of novel vaccine adjuvants and novel p38 MAPK inhibitor using formulated Mycobacterium w. All his inventions have been used in practice. He is a Fellow of several learned societies. He has more than 90 scientific papers with four US Patents. He has worked for over 15 y in senior positions in several companies, specializing in biotechnology. Presently, he has also his own consultancy company.

Dr. John is the Vice President and Founding Memberof SBPI.  An agriculture Scientist by training, he spent about 14 years in the ICAR before joining the Department of Biotechnology in 1992 as Director. His expertise is in Animal Sciences, Aquaculture and Marine Biotechnology, He has been instrumental in setting up institutions and implemented the Small Business Innovation Research Initiative, the flagship programme of DBT for Public Private Partnership. He was a Senior Scientist with WorldFish- CGIAR-FAO, in Cairo from 2001 to 2006at the Regional Research Centre for Africa and West Asia. He was the Vice Chancellor, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi after his tenure in DBT. His work as VC included strengthening role of the University towards enhancing food production in the region. Dr. John has more than 50 publications in national and international journals, has visited about 30 countries in the pursuit of scientific excellence and is associated with professional bodies, academic institutions and various committees.

Dr Bindu Dey is the General-Secretary and Founding Member of SBPI. She is a Ph.D in Zoology from the University of Delhi and been a researcher for thirteen years before joining the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India as a Science Manager. She has been involved in Planning, Generation, and Implementation & Monitoring of R & D projects in Medical Biotechnology area covering communicable and non-communicable diseases. Her expertise lies in clinical trials of new drugs, diagnostics and vaccines with focus on TB, Cholera, Metabolic Disorders and Cancer.

Appointed as the Secretary to the Technology Development Board, she used her competence in providing equity, soft loan and grants to Indian companies for up-scaling, manufacturing and commercialization of indigenous and imported technologies in alignment with ‘Make in India’ policy of the Government. Under her supervision, TDB signed agreements with many Indian Industry Associations that contributed towards social enterprising, impacting lives of at least 10 million people at the grass root  level. She has more than 50 publications in peer reviewed journals. She runs her own Not-for-profit Trust Chandrabimb Foundation with focus on TB, Malnutrition, Cancer and Medical Devices.

Divya Rajput is the Treasurer and Founding Member of SBPI. Sheworks with Texas Global, the Global Commercialization Group of the University of Texas (Austin) on leading entrepreneurship and incubation programs in India and South Asia. She has worked with Technology Development Board under DST, GoI as an Advisor on industrial collaborations and outreaching. She was also the founding Advisor to IIM Lucknow Incubator, Noida and Assam Agricultural University ,Jorhat, Assam promting technology incubation and innovation. .She has worked as the Head of Center for Business Innovation at the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs under MCA, GoI for about 6 years.

Divya been Director and Trustee, Delhi Business School, New Delhi for 6 years and been responsible for its pan-India expansion. She has mentored more than 100 entrepreneurs on technology description, business strategy and revenue models. She was the mentor to Aspiring Women Entrepreneurs program, funded by the US Department of State.

She is also the co-founder and President of the Association of Women in Business; a non-profit section 8 company established to mentor and enable women entrepreneurs  build scalable businesses.

Dr. Brij M. Gandhi,is the Founding Memberof SBPI. He is an M.Sc.in Biochemistry and Ph.D.in Experimental Medicine, Norway. As Adviser in the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India he was involved in research management, promotion and policy issues in biotechnology related to International Collaborations. Prior to joining DBT, he was a Scientist at AIIMS, New Delhi, working on immunology of parasitic, bacterial and viral infections including amoebic diseases; hepatitis; liver diseases; IVD; food and nutritional health issues.Presently, he is CEO and Founder of Neo BioMed Services (www.neobiomed.com). His company is providing services and consultancy on health and regulatory issues related to biopharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, including stem cell and regenerative medicine. His contribution in promoting medical biotechnology including stem cells and regenerative medicine, infrastructure development, animal and aquaculture biotechnology, biosafety and biosecurity is noteworthy.

Dr. Gandhi was trained at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London; National Institutes of Health, USA; Hvidovre Hospital, Copenhagen; and University of Bergan, Norway. He continues to serve as Advisor/Director in a number of institutions, pharma and biopharma industries. He has an overall experience of about 50 years. He has over 150 publications.

S.L. Govindwar is a Founding Member of SBPI.He joined DBT in 1988 and  handled R & D funding in Industrial Biotechnology, technology transfer, licensing, foreign collaborations, development of antibiotics and immunodiagnostics. He was associated with the setting up of the Biotech Consortium India Limited and contributed immensely to Environmental Biotechnology, Bio-diversity conservation and Climate Change. He also handledBiotechnology  programmes for Rural Development, Human Resource Development. Prior to joining DBT he was an Assistant Professor for two years in Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sewagram, Wardha (Maharashtra) andwas involved in R & D of immunodiagnostics for Filariasis. He joined National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur early in his career and worked on Ganga action plan, Air pollution studies/control in the triangle of Agra (TajMahal), Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and Mathura to study the impact of the Mathura oil Refinery. He was associated with the Water technology Mission of Govt. of India, EIA  studies on Cement Plants, Zinc and Copper smelters and Thermal Power  plants.

He served as a Member on Research Councils of many CSIR laboratories and an Expert Member of Central Council for Research in Ayurveda  andSidha, (CCRAS), Govt of India. He was on the Board of PG Studies in universities like JNU, New Delhi. He also designed new courses in Environmental Biotechnology, Marine Biotechnology and Stem Cell Biology; and prepared a National Action Plan for Mitigation Technologies for Climate Change and generated research projects in this area.

Dr. Ramanaiah is a Founding Member  of SBPI. After completion of his Ph.D. degree in Genetics from Osmania University, Hyderabad in 1982 he worked at research institutions like National Institute of  Communicable Diseases (NICD), Delhi; Malaria Research Centre (MRC), Madras; Malaria Research Centre (MRC), Hardwar. He was with DBT from 1990 to 2006. He later joined a multinational seed companies like Pioneer Hi-bred Seeds Pvt. Ltd (PHI Seeds), Hyderabad (A DuPont Pioneer company); Advanta Ltd, Hyderabad. While doing research in the areas of Malaria parasite; Malaria vector, he developed “An In vitro micro assay system for identifying anti-malarials that act through their metabolites”. At DBT he was involved in Industrial Licensing; R&D projects in Industrial Biotechnology; Technology Transfers; Biotech Product Developmentand setting up Biotech Parks. He was also associated with implementation of Rules & Regulations of Biosafety; introduction of Bt.cotton; Patent Act; Seed Bill; PVP&FRA; RTI Act; Import & Export of germplasm and dealing with Supreme Court Cases on Bt.cotton etc. He published 12 research papers. At present he is  providing need based advice to the seed industry on various issues.