Over the last decade there has been a major push to develop homegrown medtech product startups in healthcare and other areas of biotech. Several agencies notably Department of Science & Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology- Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (DBT-BIRAC), Millennium Alliance, Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)-Niti Aayog and others have contributed to injecting funding and other support mechanisms to build 3000- 4000 biotech/medtechstartups as well as 200 S&T incubators in the country.
This arguably is a national portfolio that has been built through taxpayer's money and painstaking efforts of various stakeholders, most notably the leadership shown by incubators. The incubators housing them are analogous to an “asset house”.
The innovation community has responded with a can-do attitude and have scrambled to kick start COVID-19 focused solutions. The Principal Scientific Adviser’s (PSA) Office has constituted several task forces that are co-ordinating different aspects of the response with speed and precision.
COVID-19 Funding: Fast decisions
Most Science & Technology arms of the Government of India have launched COVID-19 specific funding calls, be it CAWACH by DST, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) labs, DBT-BIRAC (a special COVID-19 call), Technology Development Board (TDB) and Invest India as well as big incubators such as IKP Knowledge Park (IKP), Venture Center, SINE-IIT Bombay, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), SIIC- IIT Kanpur, AIC-CCMB and FITT-IIT Delhi amongst others.
This story is from the May 2020 edition of Bio Spectrum.
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This story is from the May 2020 edition of Bio Spectrum.
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