The Centre’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) aims to cultivate about 60-70 social entrepreneurs during each of its cohort workshops under ‘Sparsh’ programme to develop affordable biotechnological interventions to address critical societal challenges, said BIRAC MD Jitendra Kumar.
He was participating in the three-day ‘Venture Design Workshop’ at the ‘Sparsh Centre’ held at the Atal Incubation Centre – Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (AIC-CCMB) in collaboration with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), said an official release on Friday.
Sparsh programme, initiated by the Centre, provides fellowship, which spans 18 months and includes a kick-start grant ₹5 lakh, enabling chosen fellows to demonstrate the viability of their ideas and guides them toward building entrepreneurship in social innovation space through biotechnology-based interventions.
The workshop was meant to mentor and evaluate fellows under Sparsh, which aims to encourage aspiring entrepreneurs with special focus on addressing challenges in various areas such as maternal and child health, ageing and health, food and nutrition, waste to value, agri-tech, and combating environmental pollution.
CSIR-CCMB Director Vinay Kumar Nandicoori commended the programme and pointed out that BIRAC had successfully merged the fields of biology and social entrepreneurship by providing a supportive ecosystem for innovators who want to explore entrepreneurship as a career. Such initiatives positively contribute to the growth of the biotechnology sector in India and encourage the translation of scientific research into practical applications that benefit society and the economy, he said.
AIC-CCMB CEO N. Madhusudhana Rao, BIRAC- Director (Operations) Subhra R. Chakrabarti and Satyajit Majumdar of the TISS also spoke, said a press release on Friday.
