Read more stories about Public Companies, Indian Unicorns and Telecom in our narratives. View All Narratives

Feedback Loop

Through the Birac-ulors: The odds for India’s only lab-to-market engine

Matching every government rupee with industry rupee, Birac has brought Rs 1870 crore to the tech commercialisation table. After 750 startups, 165 IPs, 35 incubators, 30 products, and much more, should it stick to its economic script or reform?

07/01/19

Seema Singh

Birac was set up as a unique public sector enterprise to provide 360-degree support to enable tech development and commercialisation in life sciences, which inspired other govt agencies to fund startups

In eight years, it has created an organised marketplace for bio-translation; a network of 700+ mentors to speed up tech commercialisation

As it now gets into disbursing risk capital, should it pick winners and back them to the market or continue to sustain its industry enablement?

Its challenges are not trivial because, in a stodgy country, people with innovation and product building experience are few and far between

Birac-lede-image.jpg

It was born out of a national shortcoming. One where taking new ideas to market, when the innovator did not want to become an entrepreneur, was papered over forever. This was early-to-mid 2000s. Life sciences innovation in India was contracting into a bolus of agony even as the rest of the world was forging ahead…

Read more stories about Public Companies, Indian Unicorns and Telecom in our narratives. Or see all narratives

Read the full story. Create a free account.

Also read our exhaustive coverage about Public Companies, Indian Unicorns and Telecom

Or subscribe. Why? Let us explain.

Already Registered?

Related stories

More stories in /Analysis & /Technology

See all in Business, Startups & Technology

Want to read this story for free right now? Just

Read the full story instantly.
Just enter your email address.

Also read our exhaustive coverage about Public Companies, Indian Unicorns and Telecom

Or subscribe. Why? Let us explain.

Or

By registering, you will be signed-up for an account which gives you access to a free story published once a week and archives of all our free stories. You will also receive a daily newsletter sent to your inbox. To unsubscribe, please visit the profile section in your account.

What you get

Access all free stories

100+ archived free stories, and all upcoming ones too.

Paid story summaries

Read an exclusive 200 word summary for all our paid stories.

Daily Newsletters

Our world-renowned emails, in your inbox, every day.

Or get full access to all our stories

About subscriptions

Already Registered? Login

Questions?

What is The Ken?

The Ken is a subscription-driven media site. We write one story a day (weekdays only). These stories have sharp, original insights on technology, business, science and healthcare from India.

Why do I have to sign up to read your stories?

Our stories are not free. Well, some select stories are. But, a significant part of what we write at The Ken is for subscribers only. We put in a lot of effort and resources in writing our stories and believe that you must pay for good journalism.
Hence, our three plans. 1) The annual membership
2) The free sign up
3) The recurring quarterly subscription

On journalism and why you should pay for it, if you haven’t already seen it, here’s a great explainer from John Oliver.

So, one must pay for journalism?

Yes.

How many stories will I get if I take an annual membership?

200+ stories.

And, in the free sign up?

Four stories every month.

Do I get a refund?

We allow you to sample our journalism for free before signing up, and after you do, we stand by its quality. But we do not offer refunds.

I am not getting my daily emails. Do I have to whitelist emails from The Ken?

An added benefit of your subscription (free/paid) are the daily personalised emails. These emails, at times, might end up in your spam/junk folder due to emojis, attachments or images. In case you’re not receiving these emails, it might help to whitelist us. If the problem still persists, write to us at [email protected].

Why am I unable to access the archives?

Full and unrestricted access to our archives is a feature of our annual membership.

My payment is not going through, what can I do?

Please write to us at [email protected] detailing the payment error or queries.

See all FAQs

    See all results for Ken

    No results found for Ken.