SHILLONG: The North Eastern Hill University, Shillong hosted an interactive session titled ‘Igniting Minds:Bioentrepreneurship’ on Saturday sponsored by Birac Regional Techno-entrepreneurship Promotion Centre (BRTC), KIIT-TBI, Bhubaneswar and National Academy of Sciences India.
Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a public sector not for profit company under the aegis of Department of Biotechnology, Government of India in collaboration with Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) – Technology Business Incubator (TBI), Bhubaneswar has created a Bioentrepreneurship promoting platform by the name BRTC (Birac Regional Techno-entrepreneurship Promotion Center), which aspires to enable and empower the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the East and North East.
Mrutyunjay Suar, CEO, KIIT-TBI, Prof Anupam Chatterjee, Prof SR Joshi, Prof K Aguan of the Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, NEHU, Shillong and Manash Deep Dey, Manager, BRTC, KIIT-TBI graced the event as resource persons.
In the interactive session, Mrutyunjay Suar emphasised on the untapped opportunities in Bioentrepreneurship in NE.
Citing few examples of already existing entrepreneurial fervor in the people of NE, especially in the women folk of Meghalaya, Suar mentioned that BRTC features a special segment of services for rural promoting women entrepreneurship through skill development programmes.
The resource persons also talked about other NE specific programs of BRTC, such as, NE Immersion program, which is for connecting the budding entrepreneurs of NE with the matured Incubation Centers such as KIIT-TBI. An upcoming showcase event slated to be held during the annual Cherry Blossom festival here, aspires to invite successful entrepreneurs to invest in the NE region and set up their enterprises in NE.
Meanwhile, Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG), a flagship programme of BIRAC that grants Rs 50 lakh to the successful pitchers was also talked about during the event. The next BIG call shall open from July 1 to August 16.
