Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 30 (IANS): The challenge before the proposed National Innovation Council (NIC) on biodiversity is to ensure a balance between conservation and economic development, National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) chairman Balakrishna Pisupati said here Sunday.

Pisupati was speaking to the media on the concluding day of the first National Biodiversity Congress (NBC) that started Dec 21.

"Sam Pitroda, chairman, Prime Minister's Innovation Council, said that an NIC on biodiversity would be set up. This would make India the first country to have an NIC, which will bring a sea-change in how we deal with biodiversity and ecosystem," said Pisupati.

R. Chidambaram, principal science advisor to the prime minister, said that a National Biodiversity Grid would be set up to facilitate and support the work of the NBA in collating, analysing and synthesis of biodiversity data and information for conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity.

"The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing will provide software to link all biodiversity data across the country to create a National Biodiversity Information facility," added Pisupati.

"The second and third NBC would be in West Bengal next year and in Chhattisgarh in 2014," added Pisupati.

A record 40,000 people visited the biodiversity expo.