Biotechnological research is promoted through the development of "Biotechnology Parks". Which of the following is/are essential to bring technology to market? 1. Development of new product 2. Entrepreneurship 3. Technology incubation Select the answer using the code given below:

Correct — C, 1, 2 and 3. A biotechnology park is built to close the distance between a laboratory result and a saleable product, and all three items on the list are part of that route. Development of a new product is the starting point, since a research finding has to be turned into something that can be made to a specification and cleared by a regulator. Entrepreneurship supplies the person and the firm willing to carry the commercial risk; without it a technology stays on the shelf whoever funded it. Technology incubation supplies what a young firm cannot buy for itself — pilot plant, shared analytical facilities, regulatory and patent advice and early capital — during the years between prototype and revenue. Remove any one and the chain breaks, so no partial code can be right.

• (a)1 only — This keeps only product development. A finished product with nobody to make and sell it never reaches a market, which is exactly the gap parks were set up to close.
• (b)1 and 2 only — This drops technology incubation, which is the service a park is chiefly built to provide. Shared pilot facilities and regulatory support are what a new biotechnology firm cannot afford alone.
• (d)2 and 3 only — This drops product development. Entrepreneurship and incubation have nothing to work on unless there is a product to develop in the first place.

Technology commercialisation moves through recognisable stages: research, proof of concept, prototype, pilot scale, regulatory clearance and market entry. The stretch between a working prototype and a paying customer is where most ventures fail, because the costs are heavy and revenue has not begun. Science and technology parks, incubators and accelerators exist to bridge exactly that stretch by sharing infrastructure and shortening the learning curve for young firms.

Items of this shape reward reading the stem's purpose clause rather than each statement in isolation. The stem asks what is essential to bring technology to market, so the test for each numbered item is whether the route survives without it. All three survive that test as necessary, and the examiner has offered three partial codes to catch a candidate who evaluates the statements as free-standing facts instead. Where every statement in a list is uncontroversial and none contradicts another, the full code is usually the intended answer.

• A biotechnology park provides shared pilot plant, analytical instruments, regulatory guidance and patent support.
• The gap between a working prototype and a paying customer is where most technology ventures fail.
• India's Department of Biotechnology, set up in 1986, supports biotechnology parks and incubators across several states.
• Incubation typically supplies space, equipment, mentoring and early-stage capital to a young firm.
• Commercialisation runs research, proof of concept, prototype, pilot scale, regulatory clearance and market entry.

• Judging each numbered statement as a standalone fact instead of against the purpose named in the stem.
• Assuming a partial code must be right because a full code looks too easy.
• Treating incubation as an optional extra rather than as the park's core service.

A three-statement code item where all three belong. The examiner is testing whether the purpose clause in the stem is being used as the test.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  A business incubator chiefly provides a young firm with

  • (a)guaranteed customers
  • (b)shared infrastructure, mentoring and early support
  • (c)export subsidies
  • (d)exemption from all regulation

  Answer(b) shared infrastructure, mentoring and early support — the things it cannot yet buy for itself.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Department of Biotechnology in India functions under which Ministry?

  • (a)Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
  • (b)Ministry of Science and Technology
  • (c)Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
  • (d)Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

  Answer(b) Ministry of Science and Technology — it was set up under that ministry in 1986.