i am extremely pleased to see such a positive budget it has addressed four key essential areas infrastructure health education and scientific research i am particularly gratified by the strong emphasis placed on research an industry body able association of biotechnology led enterprises had recommended a large number of incentives to boost innovation and knowledge excellence in biotechnology the finance ministers speech clearly articulates the opportunities in drug discovery and clinical development what is also exciting is the rs 100 crore budgetary allocation for iisc in bangalore with an aim to develop it into a centre of knowledge excellence alongside oxford mit stanford etc an important part of the budget statement is the strong recognition of biotechnology as a sunrise industry the reduction in corporate tax is an unexpected bonus which i am sure will further boost growth the strong budget reflects the confidence surging through indian industry i have just returned from an indiafocused seminar at harvard business school there was this buoyant mood about india as an economic power for the first time the indiachina story focussed on indias strengths namely a good legal structure corporate governance a strong stock market and its ability to be competitive in both manufacturing and services there was a strong recognition that indias respect for ip and its level of innovation is at a higher level than that of china kiran majumdar shaw is the chairman of biotech firm biocon and indias richest woman