BIRAC Supported Biotechnology Park and Incubation Centre in Rajasthan Soon

A biotechnology park and incubation centre will be set up in Rajasthan for which a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed between the Centre and the state government, Union Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Renu Swaroop said on Friday.

The park and incubation centre will provide an opportunity to conduct research in the field of biotechnology and employment to the youth, she said.

Swaroop was addressing the State Biotech Cohort Meeting, which was attended by vice chancellors, directors and deans of all universities having biotechnology courses, representatives from institutes conducting research in biotechnology and start-ups associated with it.

Swaroop said the Centre will provide full support and assistance to promote biotechnology in Rajasthan.

The biotechnology park and incubation centre will be set up with the support of Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).

She said utility of biotechnology is increasing in every field, including health, agriculture and agriculture production, industry, edible food, among others. There is a need to promote biotechnology, and encouraging it will give pace to industrial development and research, she added.

Rajasthan Department of Science and Technology Secretary Mugdha Sinha said bio-informatics, biomedical engineering and nano medicine will be encouraged in the state.

The Rajasthan government recently launched Nirogi Rajasthan (Healthy Rajasthan) campaign and all possible assistance through bio-informatics will be provided to strengthen it, she added.

Biotechnology ecosystem and start-ups will be improved in the state with the help from Centre, she said. PTI AG

Soon A Bio-Incubator at BHU by BIRAC at a Set Up Cost of ₹6 Crore

Department of Biotechnology’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) has approved the setting up of a bio-incubator at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) under its `Bioincubators Nurturing Entrepreneurship for Scaling Technologies’ (Bio-NEST) programme. The facility will be set up at a cost of Rs. six crore.

BIRAC had initiated the Bio-Nest programme as part of an effort to promote the biotech innovation ecosystem in the country. Enterprising ideas in the biotech sector need incubation support of a different kind from the IT sector. They need a landing space to test their ideas, run their operations, have access to high end instrumentations and locate in a place where they connect with other start ups and mentors.

The incubators set up under Bio-NEST programme meet all these requirements. They provide incubation space to start ups and entrepreneurs and enable interactions between the industry and the academia for efficient exchange of knowledge and facilitate technical and business mentorship. Among other things, they are equipped to help the startups in terms of intellectual property and technology management, and mobilization of resources. They act as a networking platform.

BIRAC had initiated the Bio-Nest programme as part of an effort to promote the biotech innovation ecosystem in the country. Enterprising ideas in the biotech sector need incubation support of a different kind from the IT sector.

On January 16, 2016, Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi had announced a `Startup India Action Plan’. This envisages to have at least 2,000 startups in the country by 2020. To make this happen, there is a need to create bio-incubation spaces that are world class and that can provide cutting edge access to the best environs for propelling innovative ideas towards product commercialization. The Bio-NEST programme is designed to help this process.

The growing biotech startup ecosystem would require either scaling of existing bioincubation space in current biotech hubs or creation of new bio-incubation space at nascent hubs that have the potential to become bigger biotech hubs in the next decade. Further, the creation of new bio- incubation space should be cognizant about the differential needs of varied nature of biotech startups- especially those that are medtech (including medical electronics hardware), biopharma, agri-biotech and biomaterials.

Besides supporting establishment of new incubators under the control of State Government biotechnology councils or science and technology councils and at academic and research institutes, Hospitals and other such organizations, the Bio-NEST programme also offer assistance to strengthening and updating already existing incubators.

Source - Vigyanprasar.gov.in

C-CAMP Launches New Startup Initiatives including An Incubator and CoE in Agri-Innovation

Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), which is India’s largest incubator to boost life science research, innovation and entrepreneurship, has recently launched of three of its initiatives - Karnataka Startup Advancement Program (K-SAP) BIO 50, Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Agri-Innovation and Technology Business Incubator.

The launch was conducted in the presence of Shri K. J. George, Hon’ble Minister of Large & Medium Scale Industries, IT, BT & ST, Government of Karnataka and Shri N. H. Shivashankara Reddy, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Karnataka, along with Principal Secretary, Department of IT, BT & S&T, Govt. of Karnataka, Shri Gaurav Gupta.

Notably, C-CAMP is a Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India initiative to provide platforms for technology development and nurture innovations in the area of life sciences. C-CAMP is also a member of the Bangalore Life Sciences Cluster (BLiSC) with a mandate to enable cutting-edge life science research and innovation and promote life science entrepreneurship.

In line with C-SAP, C-CAMP in association with Karnataka Biotechnology and Information Technology Services (KBITS) and Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre (BBC) has also initiated a 1 year equity based mentorship and capacity building program for startups based out of Karnataka, the Karnataka Startup Advancement Program (K-SAP) BIO 50.

The main objective of this program is to meaningfully engage and work closely with Karnataka startups to enhance their odds of success and to enable startups achieve faster traction in their key milestones”, explained Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO, C-CAMP.

Till date, C-CAMP has incubated over 30 innovative startups and entrepreneurs working in different areas of Life Sciences and Biotechnology. Its incubatees are currently working in the fields of drug discovery, molecular biology, transgenic model systems, biomaterials, synthetic biology, upstream & downstream processing, agricultural sciences, nutraceuticals etc

“The scientists in our country are doing a wonderful job. The government of Karnataka is very happy to join hands with C-CAMP which is an initiative of Government of India. We are happy to help you out in your ventures and you have our full support”, said K J George, Hon’ble Minister of Large & Medium Scale Industries, IT, BT & ST, Government of Karnataka while addressing the audience during the inaugural ceremony.

“In the agricultural system, there are a lot of missing links. Although we are focusing on production we are not giving enough importance to processing and marketing. We need to work on this. C-CAMP as an incubation centre can provide with few solutions to address such problems. There are so many innovations happening in India that can be applied in agriculture”, stated Shri N. H. Shivashankara Reddy, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Karnataka during the inauguration.

In last couple of years, Biotechnology startups scenario in India has improved tremendously. In a 2017 study by Association of Biotechnology Led enterprises (ABLE) revealed that Indian biotech startup ecosystem is booming with 1022 bio-technology startups and it has managed to fetch investments of over $2.8 billion (Rs 18,700 crore) in five years i.e from 2012 to 2016.

In April this year, Swiss multinational healthcare firm Roche informally announced that it is looking for startups in India that will help the company bring evidence-based medicine in India through its proprietary technology

However a life sciences or medical product company is yet to make it big in India, despite a startup culture that is now almost two-decades years old.

Last October, Union Minister of Science and Technology launched Women Bio-tech Incubator at Golden Jubilee Biotech Park for Women Society during International Science Congress, 2017 in Chennai.

In 2016, Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) made waves in the Indian startup ecosystem when it launched an Innovation Hub (iHUB@CCMB) in its medical biotechnology complex there. Last year, it even selected 4 biotech startup companies for this incubator.

Source - Bio Spectrum India

[Top Image - foto-basa.com]

Women Biotech Incubator Launched in Chennai

In a bid to encourage more women into taking the tech entrepreneurship route, Dr. Harshvardhan, Union Minister of Science and Technology recently inaugurated Women Bio-tech Incubator at Golden Jubilee Biotech Park for Women Society during the recently concluded International Science Congress, 2017 in Chennai.

The inauguration took place during the Women Scientists Conclave organised on the theme “Women Scientist and Entrepreneurs – Game Changers Driving Science for New India.” It was held as a part of India IISF.

Taking the podium at the conclave, Dr. Harshvardhan said, “In the field of Science and Technology and Entrepreneurship, Indian women have had a major presence over the last 100 years. The DST and DBT have special schemes to attract women scientists and to provide employment opportunities to the unemployed women scientists. Women Entrepreneurship is a very important activity that has been growing rapidly in last few years. “Start up India”and “Stand up India” announced by Hon’ble Prime Minister are initiatives which offer tremendous opportunities to the women entrepreneurs.”

Talking about the talented women at the incubator, he added, “The women scientists would contribute significantly to the growth of the country and fulfill the dream of Hon’ble Prime Minister of “Making a New India”. Women scientists and Entrepreneurs definitely are the Game Changers Driving Science for “Making a New India”

Despite being the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, the sorry state of gender equality in the Indian startup ecosystem reflects the ages old discrimination and backwardness that the South Asian country has been fighting since time immemorial now. The second report of “Startup India- Momentous rise of the Indian Startup ecosystem” presented by Nasscom along with Zinnov revealed that only 9 per cent of Indian founders or co-founders are women. In fact, the year saw 'Women Business Ownership' index by Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs ranking the Indian subcontinent among the lowest in the 54 economies it evaluated globally.

India, which has the second largest population in world out of which 48.17 per cent are women, scored a lowly 41.7 points on the index, which made it occupy the 49th rank among the 54 global economies that the index took into account.

The index explained India's poor performance by stating that the country presents much lesser opportunities to women to participate in the workforce, engage in entrepreneurial activities or even assume leadership roles in general.

This development was first reported in BioSpectrumIndia.