Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA and Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, March 14, 2011: Ocimum Biosolutions announced today that Anuradha (Anu) Acharya, Founder & CEO, has been honored as a 2011 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. The honor, bestowed annually since its inception in 2004, acknowledges 100-200 excellent young leaders from across the globe for their professional achievements, commitment to society at large and prospective contribution to shaping the global future.

Anu Acharya is now a member of the Forum of Young Global Leaders that works in tandem with the World Economic Forum towards discovering innovative solutions to current global challenges while building the next-generation leadership community. She said, “I am honored and thrilled to be part of the Young Global Leaders community by the World Economic Forum. The YGL platform is a powerful peer group that will enable us to contribute more effectively to the future of the world. I am looking forward to being actively involved in YGL”.

This year, the World Economic Forum has named 190 Young Global Leaders, out of which 18 are from South Asia and 12 from India.

About Anu Acharya

Ms. Anu Acharya is the Founder & CEO of Ocimum Biosolutions, a global genomics outsourcing partner for discovery, development and diagnostics. Since founding the company in 2000, she has piloted it to great heights through strategic international acquisitions, capital raises for equity investments and launch of innovative products, solutions and services through its proprietary platform called RaaS (Research as a Service). She currently serves as a governing board member at CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), the premier R&D Organization in India and also a governing board member at the NIBMG (National Institute for Biomedical Genomics).

Prior to founding Ocimum Biosolutions, Ms. Acharya has had rich experience in the Telecom, IT and entrepreneurship arenas. She worked for a start-up in the telecommunications space called Mantiss Information and a consulting firm called SEI Information where she helped create a social networking site for entrepreneurs. Her experience is backed by education at premier institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, India (IIT) and University of Illinois where she has two Post Graduate degrees in Physics and MIS.

She was selected by Red Herring Magazine to the list of “25 Tech Titans under 35″ in 2006. She has been named Biospectrum “Entrepreneur of the Year” for 2008 and also has been awarded the Astia Life Science Innovators Award in the same year. Ms. Acharya has been a past President of the Hyderabad chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organization and currently serves on the board of ABLE (Association of Biotech Led Enterprises). At Ocimum, she also mentors committees for resource development and Corporate Social Responsibility.

About Ocimum Biosolutions

Ocimum Biosolutions is a leading integrated global genomics outsourcing partner with solutions spanning Bioresearch Design and Execution; Data Analytics and Insights; Laboratory, Sample & Data Management; and Integrated Solutions. Ocimum provides comprehensive genomic services and reference databases; data analysis; biorepository services such as sample accrual & collection, IRB approvals, CRO training, sample, clinical data capture and management; life science lab information management solutions; and also offers both research level and GLP-compliant services. Majority of the top 25 pharma & biotech companies and leading research institutes worldwide have chosen Ocimum as their preferred genomics outsourcing partner. Ocimum has received several awards including “Fastest Growing Life Sciences Company in India”, Red Herring Asia 100, “IT Innovation Award” by NASSCOM and has been named to the Deloitte list of Fastest Growing companies in Asia, four years in a row. Ocimum is one of three Indian companies that successfully developed an indigenous, relatively low-cost H1N1 Swine Flu H1N1 detection kit in 2010.

For more information, please visit www.ocimumbio.com.

About The World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

For more information, please visit www.weforum.org/young-global-leaders.