The Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology at Thiruvananthapuram, a charitable society that became a national institute

Background

A Union government biotechnology institute in Thiruvananthapuram began life as a small charitable society and came under the State government only later. The Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) is located in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala. RGCB began in 1990 amongst humble surroundings as a small charitable society called C-DEST. In 1991 C-DEST was made a Grant-in-Aid institute of the Government of Kerala and renamed RGC-DEST, becoming the first institute in the country to be named after Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India. On April 18, 1994 the State government restructured it into a comprehensive biotechnology center, and thus was created the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology. It was managed first by a State committee for science and technology and environment and subsequently by the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment. The Ministry of Science and Technology decided to accord the status of an autonomous National Institute to the Centre, and the Union Council of Ministers approved the take over from April 1, 2007. Its research programmes are now designed as clusters of investigations on the central theme of Disease Biology, covering human, animal and plant disease.