Photo credit: X/@CCAMP_India
BENGALURU: The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) Tuesday launched a dedicated Centre of Excellence (CoE) for sustainability and climate action, marking its first major push into climate-focused biotechnology. The initiative, developed with the Bengaluru-based Ashraya Hastha Trust (AHT), will anchor C-CAMP’s Bio for Climate programme and aims to back biological solutions for emissions reduction and natural carbon sequestration.Karnataka health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao inaugurated the CoE at C-CAMP’s Bengaluru campus and said the initiative comes at a time when the links between climate, public health and livelihoods are becoming harder to ignore. He noted that cleaner water, air and food must be treated as public health priorities and said the state would support efforts to develop practical, science-led climate responses.Over the next three to five years, the CoE plans to map key climate-linked challenges across environment, health and agriculture, identify high-impact solutions, and support validation and wider deployment. C-CAMP Director-CEO Dr Taslimarif Saiyed said biotechnology will be central to future climate action, highlighting the organisation’s experience in supporting more than 50 climate innovations. AHT Managing Trustee K Divya Dinesh said climate action needs to shift from intent to implementation, stressing that innovation must reach communities to have real impact, while MS Swaminathan Research Foundation Chairperson Dr Soumya Swaminathan said India remains food secure but faces nutritional insecurity, which climate stress could worsen. She called for climate-resilient food systems.Former principal scientific adviser to Govt of India Prof K VijayRaghavan said technology must connect to ground realities to be effective and noted the CoE’s potential to link innovators with govt, industry and civil society for scalable solutions.
