Agartala, Mar 20, 2025, TRIPURA TIMES Desk

Agartala, Mar 20: Tripura’s Biotechnology department has been selected for the prestigious SKOCH Award 2025 at the national level for its College Biotech Club initiative. The award will be presented in a ceremony at the Habitat Centre in New Delhi on March 29.

The announcement was made by Minister of Science, Technology and Environment Animesh Debbarma at a press conference at the Tripura State Pollution Control Board conference hall on Thursday.

The award is conferred by an independent and reputed organization, SKOCH, which evaluates initiatives in good governance, environmental protection, and innovative technology.

Every year, the organization reviews exceptional projects from government agencies across the country. This year, around 400 projects from 27 states were submitted for evaluation, and only after multiple assessment stages the final winners were declared.

Tripura's Biotechnology Department had previously won the SKOCH Silver Award in 2022 for its Bio-Village 2.0 project.

Speaking to the media, Debbarma highlighted several on-going and upcoming biotechnology projects including expansion of Bio-Village 2.0.

He said, currently, 24 Bio-Village 2.0 projects are being implemented in Tripura. The state aims to establish six more by 2025-26. Additionally, a private firm from Pune has shown interest in implementing Bio-Village 2.0 in the state.

He said, the College Biotech Club initiative has been implemented in 17 degree colleges across the state, with plans to extend it to four more colleges in 2025-26. Initially, the program was limited to general degree colleges, but from the next financial year, it will also include medical, veterinary, agriculture, and fisheries colleges. The financial grant for this initiative has been increased to Rs. 2.5 lakh per college.

According to Debbarma, the department is in talks with companies to promote paper recycling. Additionally, an MoU was signed in February 2024 to establish an Institute for Bioresources and Sustainable Development at the TFDPC office building. This institute will focus on scientific utilization of medicinal plants to develop herbal medicines.

The press conference was attended by Secretary of Science, Technology and Environment department Dr. K. Shashi Kumar and Joint Director Anjan Sengupta.