Dr Vikas Gautam, a professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology at Post Graduate Institute Of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh, won the first prize in the BRIC Technology Exposition 2020 organised for the first time for statups and innovators in the region at the CSIR-Imtech (Institute of Mircobial Technology) Chandigarh on Friday.
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The prize worth Rs 1 lakh was awarded to him for his innovation, a potent novel herbal antiseptic called Sepil, which is being considered superior to povidone-iodine, a broad spectrum antiseptic used for topical application in the treatment and prevention of wound infection.
Photos By : Life In Chandigarh
The exposition-workshop, wherein 20-odd startups and innovators from the region in the domains of agriculture, secondary agriculture, healthcare and pharma got to interact with some well known mentors, angel investors and venture capitalists, was organised by BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council) Regional Incubation Centre (BRIC) in collaboration with IKP Knowledge Park, Hyderabad, a premier science park and incubator, and CSIR-Imtech.
It is an effort to showcase translational ideas, and support researchers who want to generate feasible startup plans in the areas of pharma, medical devices, diagnostics and agriculture. Budding researchers got an opportunity to pitch before investors and learn the process of getting funding or investments and how to develop business proposals.
Among the industry leaders and mentors/investors, who were also on jury for the expo-workshop, were Dr PJ Singh, Chairman & Managing Director, Tynor Orthotics and Rohit Kuthiala, a well known digital transformation evangelist managing innovation and disruptive technologies.
Also present to motivate the budding entrepreneurs was Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, Chairman and CEO of IKP Knowledge Park, as also its Senior Vice President Dr Ambuj Chaturvedi.
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Dr Vikas Gautam
Four winners announced on the occasion will be awarded incubation facility at either IKP Knowledge Park Hyderabad or IKP Eden Bangalore. The aim is to provide them access to facilities in an established incubator to take their ideas forward.
The second prize of Rs 50,000 was bagged in the healthcare domain by a sponge dressing innovation team of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Panjab University, Chandigarh.
Third in the list of winners was Sidharth Arora, Founder & CEO, Fermentech Labs, housed in the TIDES Business Incubator at IIT Roorkee, in the secondary agriculture domain for developing a novel solid-state fermentation bioreactor for production of industrial enzymes.
The fourth place went to A2P (Agri2Power) Energy Solutions, Rajpura, Punjab, in the agriculture domain for developing NextGen biofuels. The company is producing energy products like pellets from paddy straw, thereby helping reduce the open field paddy straw burning problem.
Speaking at the occasion, Deepanwita Chattopadhyay said, "IKP has always believed in promoting entrepreneurs, advancement of technology-based innovators and small and large companies through customized space, shared equipment, incubation, mentorship and funding. IKP has so far supported over 550 companies from eight countries, 80% of which are start-ups."
She informed that BRIC at IKP Knowledge Park is mapping life science innovation in India, and Chandigarh is one of the 23 innovation clusters being mapped. Holding the tech-expo at CSIR-IMTECH is part of this exercise, she added.
Later talking to LifeInChandigarh.com, Dr PJ Singh said the purpose behind his on-the-spot announcement to give away the ‘Tynor Innovation Cash Awards’ for the first two winners was to stimulate much needed excitement and exuberance among them, which is vital to succeed in whatever goals they have set before themselves.
He shared that the differentiators between the winners were level of novelty, commercial viability of the project, scalability in the business model and a maturity of mind. The ideas of other participants were also very good, but they lacked adequate groundwork to take these forward, he added.
He lauded the efforts of IKP Knowledge Park Hyderabad in bringing the startups and innovators together on a common platform, which he felt was much needed. There are a lot of innovative minds and ideas in the region needing hand holding, which is sadly lacking, he emphasised
Dr Manoj Raje, officiating Director, CSIR-IMTECH, in his welcome remarks stressed the need for having such tech exposition-workshops across the country to boost Government of India’s #Startup India mission.
Vinay Mehta, Director, Research & Innovation and Head, Tech Commercialisation, Chitkara University Research & Innovation Network (CURIN), who conducted the presentations by startups and innovators, while describing IKP Knowledge Park, Hyderabad as a beacon of light in the incubator ecosystem, felt that concerted efforts were required for this region to develop a mature startup ecosystem to be able to compete with the more advanced centres.
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 Chandigarh, won the first prize in the BRIC Technology Exposition 2020 organised for the first time for statups and innovators in the region at the CSIR-Imtech (Institute of Mircobial Technology) Chandigarh on Friday.){kind=link}