A new incubation centre to help women aspiring to start business in biotechnology sector will be inaugurated in the Golden Jubilee Biotech Park for Women Society in Chennai in September, according to Sudha Nair, Chief Executive Officer of the park.
Speaking to The Hindu here on Tuesday following an interaction with the students of Lady Doak College (LDC), Ms. Nair said that the incubation centre will be the first such centre in biotech sector in the country and most likely in the world set up exclusively for women entrepreneurs.
The incubation centre will be supported by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) set up by Department of Biotechnology of the Central government.
“Our biotech park itself is unique. It was conceived during the golden jubilee year of India’s Independence and came into existence a few years later to encourage women participation in biotech sector. The incubation centre will take it to the next level,” she said.
She said that the incubation centre being developed in a 5000 square feet built area will have common instrumentation facilities with advanced equipment to help budding women entrepreneurs.
“Apart from this, the centre will provide a complete ecosystem for aspiring women entrepreneurs’. It will guide them at all levels from ideation to setting up the companies to ensure that they succeed,” Ms. Nair, said, adding that aspirants will be selected after a thorough evaluation on various parameters.
She said that in the next five years, the incubation centre will target to help 500 women entrepreneurs.
“Though biotech had been said a sunrise sector for more than a decade, the opportunities are opening up in a really big way now,” she said.
Earlier, speaking to students from different life sciences streams of LDC as part of the “academic – industry interaction”, Ms. Nair urged the students to give utmost importance to practical knowledge rather than confining themselves to theory.
“The world is facing so many problems like depletion of natural resources, increasing rate of diseases like cancer and drug resistance and the solutions could emerge from biotech and related fields,” she told the students.
The programme was inaugurated by R. Krishna Kumar, Senior Manager (Regulatory Affairs), Aurolab, Madurai. Ananthi Swaminathan, Chief Operating Officer of Golden Jubilee Biotech Park for Women Society, spoke to the students on developing business proposals and collaborating with industries.
