NEW DELHI: Biotech Consortium India Limited (BCIL) recently organized a one-day workshop on “Creating and Sustaining Successful Bio-enterprises” at New Delhi. Co-sponsored by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, the well attended event was held on February 23, 2016.
The focal theme of the workshop was realization of ‘Make in India’, ‘StartUp India’, ‘Skill India’ and ‘StandUp India’ campaigns for encouraging and accelerating biotechnology entrepreneurship in India.
The inaugural session began with a floral welcome and lighting of lamp ceremony by the Chief Guest Dr Girish Sahni, Director General, CSIR and Secretary, DSIR and other dignitaries namely Dr Renu Swarup, Senior Advisor, DBT and Managing Director, BIRAC, Dr T Madhan Mohan, Adviser, DBT, Govt. of India, Dr V P Kamboj, Chairman, BCIL, Dr Purnima Sharma, Managing Director, BCIL and Dr Vibha Ahuja, Chief General Manager, BCIL.
Dr Purnima Sharma presented the welcome address highlighting the importance of encouraging, nurturing and strengthening the existing and potential biotechnology startups in the country. In her talk, Dr Rrenu Swarup motivated the participants by mentioning that life-science researchers are best positioned to become entrepreneurs since they are engaged in planning and executing of high risk biotech projects in a reproducible manner.
Dr V P Kamboj highlighted the need for developing new approaches for entrepreneurship relevant to Indian conditions and in this context highlighted the example of School of International Biodesign (SIB), a programme of DBT being managed by BCIL which has in a short span of five years promoted more than 14 startups in the medtech space.
Dr Girish Sahni emphasized the need of the entrepreneurs to aim high and gradually expand the scale of operations to minimize the risk of failure. He complimented DBT and BCIL for their exemplary contributions towards mentorship, hand-holding and funding support to entrepreneurs. The inaugural session also included the felicitation ceremony with a token of appreciation to the dignitaries. Dr Ahuja proposed the vote of thanks.
The workshop captured key issues, opportunities and challenges towards nurturing start-ups, IP management, assessment of technologies, licensing, partnering and strategic alliances, strategies for market entry, approaches to successful team building, funding opportunities, regulatory requirements for biotech products, etc. Presentations were delivered by eminent experts from government and industry – Mr Harkesh Kumar Mittal, Adviser & Head, National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, Dr Nirmalya Bagchi, Dean of Research and Management Studies, Professor and Area Chairperson, Technology Policy, Management and Innovation Area, Administrative Staff College, Hyderabad, Shri Nitin Masilamani, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, New Delhi.
The post-lunch technical session included three presentations by startup entrepreneurs – Mr Pankaj Sharma, CEO AND Co-founder, Lead Invent Technologies, Dr Prashant Jha, Fellowship Director, School of International Biodesign, AIIMS and Dr Avijit Bansal, Co-founder and CEO of Windmill Health Technologies sharing their valuable experiences in creating and sustaining bio-enterprises chaired by Dr Bindu Dey, Secretary, Technology Development Board, Government of India.
Vibrant entrepreneurship requires support from an enabling ecosystem of skills, expertise, infrastructure, culture, finance, and regulation. Realizing the need to create awareness about raising finance and regulatory compliance amongst the bio-enterprise aspirants, BCIL’s in-house team – Dr Murali Krishna, Manager, BCIL and Ms Shreya Malik, Asst. Manager, BCIL gave comprehensive presentations on the same.
The workshop ended with an interactive session with the audience and closing remarks by Dr Purnima Sharma, MD, BCIL. She apprised the audience that the presence of DG, CSIR, MD, BIRAC and Secretary, TDB highlights the significance of supporting BCIL’s initiatives in entrepreneurship development. She informed the participants that the presentations delivered by the speakers can be accessed through the BCIL website. She also expressed her gratitude to all the dignitaries, delegates, speakers and participants for attending the workshop and appreciated the BCIL organizing team on the success of the workshop.
 was realization of various...){kind=link}