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The Karnataka Cabinet, meeting at Mangaluru on 18 September 2026, approved a Marine Biotechnology Policy for 2026-2031 with an outlay of Rs 120 crore.
The policy targets growth of the state's Blue Bioeconomy from about USD 2 billion to USD 6-8 billion by 2031.
It creates the Karnataka Institute of Marine Biotechnology and Blue Economy (KIMBE) at the Government Fisheries College, with labs, a biobank and incubation centres at Udupi.
A Seaweed Value Addition Production Linked Incentive (SVA-PLI) will support higher-value seaweed derivatives, alongside dedicated Marine Biotechnology Zones.
About 2,500 high-value technical jobs and 7,500 coastal enterprise and livelihood opportunities are projected.
Expand the state's Blue Bioeconomy to USD 6-8 billion by 2031 through research, biomanufacturing, seaweed value addition, marine biomaterials and sustainable marine enterprise
Key: Rs 120 crore over five years, with KIMBE as the institutional anchor and dedicated Marine Biotechnology Zones planned with the fisheries department
Move seaweed use up the value chain from raw harvest to higher-value derivatives
Key: Incentives tied to output in hydrocolloids, nutraceuticals, biofertilisers, biostimulants, bioplastics and biofuels
Measure and certify carbon sequestered by coastal and marine ecosystems such as mangroves and seagrass
Key: Pilot stage under the new policy; links the state's coastal ecology to carbon markets
New anchor institution for research, innovation and commercialisation in marine biotechnology, to be located at the Government Fisheries College
Nodal department for the policy, working with the fisheries department on the Marine Biotechnology Zones
Existing marine science and fisheries research base the policy builds on, alongside Karnataka University, Dharwad, and NITTE
Karnataka's roughly 340 km Arabian Sea coastline runs through three districts - Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Dakshina Kannada. Udupi gets the laboratories, biobank and incubation centres; Mangaluru in Dakshina Kannada hosts the College of Fisheries and was where the Cabinet met; Dharwad, inland, contributes Karnataka University's marine science work.
Economic activity built on sustainable biological use of ocean and coastal resources - fisheries, seaweed, marine genetic material, biomaterials and biomanufacturing - rather than on extraction such as offshore oil or seabed mining.
Simple Analogy: Farming and pharma done with the sea's living resources instead of the land's.
GS Paper 3 > Economy > Blue Economy, and Science and Technology > Biotechnology applications
General Awareness > State schemes and policies in the news
Seaweed-derived gelling and thickening agents such as agar, alginate and carrageenan, used in food and pharmaceuticals.
Carbon captured and stored by coastal and marine ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrass meadows and salt marshes.
A repository that stores biological samples and their genetic material for research; here, for marine organisms.