Biotechnology has come to a stage where, by replacing some of the age-
old practices of breeding, it can produce novel and improved plants and
animals that can better serve human beings and their purposes. The
techniques of cellular and subcellular engineering, such as gene
splicing and recombinant DNA, cloning, hybridomas and monoclonal anti-
bodies, production of human insulin, protein engineering, industrial
fermentation, artificial insemination, cryopreservation and ovum trans-
fer, plant tissue culture and somatic hybridization, nitrogen fixation,
phytomass production for biofuels etc have advanced greatly in the past
decade, due to the availability of better equipment and the consolida-
tion of knowledge. Product orientation has removed biotechnology from
the area of pure academic interest to one of utility where the final
product is a spur to action. Businesses have started pouring money into
projects, which has aided greatly in improving equipment, information
exchange, and arousing the interest and imagination of the public. The
common goal of science, industry and the public opens wide vistas and
great hopes for biotechnology. The business of biotechnology addresses
itself to issues of factory farming, technology transfer, joint
ventures, international cooperation and to specific topics as well as
the produc- tion of diagnostic kits. Industry is particularly concerned
with the phar- maceutical field and microbial biotechnology from which
profitable return§ can accrue. Commercial interests have led to better
management practices and systematisation.