Kiran
Mazumdar Shaw
Kiran
Mazumdar Shaw,
India's
first biotechnology entrepreneur, and the chairperson and managing
director of
Biocon India group is truly a trendsetter. Starting out in a relatively
unknown
field she worked hard, non-stoppingly for nearly 25 years to create a
name for
herself. Today at 50 she is the richest Indian woman.
Born in
Bangalore, she had
her
early education in Bishop Cotton Girls School and then in Mount Carmel
College.
Wanting to do something different, she went to Ballarat College,
Melbourne,
specialising in Malting and Brewing Technology. She wanted to become
India's
first woman brew master.
She
started Biocon in 1978
collaborating with an Irish firm and floated two joint ventures,
Biochemizyme
and Biocon-Quest India Ltd. She always says that her inspiration for
Biocon
was, a chance meeting with the founder of Biocon International, Leslie
Auchincloss. Her goal to do something different has led her to 15
patents for
new enzymes in recent years. Her vision has transformed Biocon from an
industrial- enzyme company into an integrated biopharmaceutical
company. Today
it is one of the leaders in India's biotech industry. Biocon has
several
'firsts' to its credit. It will soon be the world's first company to
manufacture human insulin from the yeast organism, Pichia pastoris, she
reckons.
Ms.
Mazumdar says, "In
India biotechnology is the new sunrise industry after IT". She feels,
for
India, Biotechnology would provide far-reaching benefits to the needs
in food
and nutrition, human healthcare, industrial and environmental
solutions. It is
rightly referred to as the "Technology of Hope". Hope for our hungry
millions through high yielding, high nutrition food crops, golden rice,
golden
wheat and many more. Hope for our diseased populations through
vaccines. Hope
for our environment through cleaner and greener biotechnologies based
on
enzymes and bioremediation. Hope for the betterment of Indian women
economy as
it provides endless opportunities to discover and develop new products.
Hope
for India's women, as it is not gender based.
Biotechnology
is about
acquiring knowledge at several levels to generate wealth. Kiran
Mazumdar had
started Biocon with a small capital, but with a dedicated team of
highly
qualifled professionals. They came to work with her for a pittance but
today
they are at enviable positions. May be they visualized the potential
and had a
lot of faith.
Ms.
Mazumdar won a number
of
awards and held important positions. She has been the Vice-President,
Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka (AWAKE). She was
awarded the
Rotary Award for Best Model Employer, National Award for Best Small
Industry
and most noteworthy, the Padmashri in 1989 from the Government of India.
In
addition to all this,
there
is another side of Kiran Mazumdar, which many do not know. She has been
a vocal
supporter of civic amenities, roads and cleanliness in the city of
Bangalore.
She has contributed one crore rupees to the Bangalore Agenda Task Force
(BATF),
which is starting the Swacha Bangalore programme. She also has a keen
interest
in local arts and does some writing too.
Kiran
Mazumdar has shown
the
value of the desire to achieve something, however difficult or unknown
it may
be. She has poved that the will to struggle and hard work can surely
take one
to the peaks. In her own words, "Success is only pleasurable when you
struggle
for it".
What is Biotechnology?
Dictionary
defines that it is the exploitation
of biological processes for industrial and other applications,
especially the
genetic manipulation of micro-organism for the production of
antibiotics,
hormones, etc.