Sri Abdul Mannan, Hon’ble Minister for Science and Technology, U.P. kindly visited the Biotech Park, Lucknow along with Sri Dayaram Pal, Chairman, Remote Sensing Applications Centre, Lucknow, Sri Balwinder Kumar, Principal Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of U.P. and other officials of the Department of Science and Technology and U.P.C.S.T. on November 1, 2007. He saw the agri-biotechnology facilities such as vermicomposting, aquaus distillation unit for obtaining essential oil from aromatic and medicinal plants, expeller for obtaining oil from Jatropha and other plant species; plant tissue culture facility where banana and bamboo plantlets are being produced; net house and poly house where the tissue culture plants are hardened. He also visited the solvent extraction plant which is for obtaining plant extracts for producing plant based drugs, nutraceuticals, etc. The Hon’ble Minister showed keen interest and suggested for popularization of the tissue culture plants, biofertilizer and other products among the farmers.

The Hon’ble Minister, Chairman, Remote Sensing and Applications Centre and other officials visited the Human DNA Bank and met Dr. Saeed Ahmad, the Director of the bank. They enquired about its utility and applications and appreciated the setting up of bank in the park. They also met Mr. Vinay Lamba, Vice President, Chandan Health Care who is establishing a unit in the park for testing and development of diagnostic kits and Mr. Saurabh Misra who is running the Biofertilizer facility in the park and is the CEO of U.P. Bioenergy Pvt. Ltd., a company which has recently been setup at Kundanganj for production of “biofuel”. Biotech Park is the technical collaborator of this company.

Dr. P.K. Seth, CEO, Biotech Park gave a brief presentation on the facilities established at Biotech Park, its current status and ways and means by which it can play a role in rural development and employment generation through applications of biotechnology. Dr. Seth said that setting up of the Biotech Park has generated great awareness about the Biotechnology and interest among the entrepreneurs. Hon.ble Minister and others appreciated the efforts of Biotech Park for establishing the facilities which have helped the start up biotech companies to setup their facilities. He suggested identifying areas where more support is needed for the growth of biotechnology in the State

Mr Saurabh Misra explaining the properties and usefulness of vermicompost	Hon’ble Minister and Sri Balwinder Kumar being shown the expeller and the oil expelled out of jatropha seeds
Hon’ble Minister discussing with Dr. MJK Siddiqui, Director UPCST, the hardening facility for the tissue culture plants at Biotech Park	Hon’ble Minister and Sri Balwinder Kumar at the Plant Tissue Culture facility
Hon’ble Minister and Sri Balwinder Kumar at Human DNA Bank with Dr. Saeed Ahmad, the CEO of DNA Bank	Hon’ble Minister and Sri Balwinder Kumar being explained about the concept of the Human DNA Bank
	Hon’ble Minister and Sri Balwinder Kumar at Bioinformatics unit of Biotech Park
Dr. Seth welcoming the Hon’ble Minister	Hon’ble Minister; Sri Dayaram Pal and Sri Balwinder Kumar during the presentation session