Contributed by Siddarth David & Dr. Tamhankar
The Department of Biotechnology
(DBT) of the Government of India has created a fund of $1,00,000 to
start India focussed research on antibiotic resistance for biotechnology
start-ups in India. The fund will be
given through the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)
for the start-ups to compete for prestigious Longitude Prize which is £ 10
million prize offered by Nesta, a U.K. charity, to any individual group anywhere
in the world that develops an affordable, effective diagnostic test to detect
resistance to micro-organisms.
Renu Swarup, Managing Director,
BIRAC, said the collaborations were to encourage more biotechnology start-ups in
India as well as creating an atmosphere where innovation is encouraged and
nurtured. BIRAC is a not-for-profit Public Sector Undertaking, set up by DBT as
an interface agency to support emerging biotech enterprises to undertake
strategic research and innovation, to address nationally relevant product
development needs. BIRAC has supported nearly 300 start-ups and Small and
Medium Enterprises (SME) and 170 young entrepreneurs for innovation, research
and product development.
Given the critical health
challenge posed by antibiotic resistance in India, this is a welcome move to
encourage research and develop context-specific solutions.
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