Atal Incubation Centre-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (AIC-CCMB) will provide Entrepreneurs-in-residence and Start-ups financial support under the Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs Scheme (TIDE 2.0).
A part of MeitY Startup Hub, an initiative of the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the programme seeks to support innovations in digital healthcare, especially in bioinformatics and genomics. Innovators with medical, engineering, business and design backgrounds and passionate about developing solutions for actionable outcomes for clinicians will get a chance for incubation as well as funding under the programme, according to AIC-CCMB. Telangana IT and Industries Secretary Jayesh Ranjan on Monday launched the ‘AIC-CCMB IDEATHON 2020 – Bring your own idea’ through which the beneficiaries are to be selected.
The programme, conducted at CIE -IIIT Hyderabad, was addressed by CSIR- CCMB Director Rakesh Mishra, IIIT-H Director P J Narayanan and IIT Hyderabad Director B.S. Murty. TIDE 2.0 will be a part of Year of AI that Telangana has declared 2020 as.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ranjan said it is an odd coincidence that the launch of application process comes at a time when the world is in middle of turbulent times because of COVID-19 (coronavirus). Advancements of technology will help understand the disease, provide cure or prevent besides helping manage it better, he said, highlighting the significance of innovation in healthcare.
Listing out various initiatives of the State government, he said a demonstration, as part of the Medicines from The Sky project involving Telangana and World Economic Forum, of blood supply using drones would be made at the upcoming Wings India 2020 aviation show. Dr. Mishra said the call for application is aimed at building models for precision medicine, strategies and products for better clinical outcomes for the Indian population and in general, improve wellness – using genomic data, AI and bioinformatics tools. This is also in line with the large scale Indian genomic studies CSIR has undertaken.
CEO of AIC-CCMB Madhusudhana Rao said a special feature of the programme is that it also allowed individual innovators to apply in addition to start-ups. These individuals undergo an immersion programme focusing on various aspects of business as well as mentored by experts from CCMB and industry. Both individuals as well as start-ups will have an opportunity to attract investments up to ₹ 40 lakh for product development and market outreach, a release from CCMB said. The last date of application for the program is March 31.
