NEW DELHI: The project to set up such an incubator at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) was kicked off with the first meeting of its governing body members. According to William Dar, ICRISAT director general and chairman of the ABI board, entrepreneurs will be able to tap the expertise of scientists as the incubator project will be hosted inside this international centre's campus at Patancheru, an hour's drive from Hyderabad. "Technologies that are nurtured and incubated have better chances of becoming commercial successes than those that do not follow this process," Dar said. "All technologies that show promise in laboratories need not necessarily make good commercial ventures. The incubator will provide the appropriate facility for an entrepreneur to test out technologies." India's department of science and technology sees the ABI as a national facility and has provided an initial corpus funding of 25 million for setting it up. The plan will allow entrepreneurs to hire working space and share scientific equipment. Within the five years that an entrepreneur spends in ABI, it is hoped that his technology can be incubated to a stage where investment can be made for commercial production. Incubation of technologies refers to the phase were technology comes out of laboratories and is tested for performance, market acceptability and viability before scaling up to larger commercial projects. Entrepreneurs can identify the technology they want to incubate and develop a business plan for their individual projects. They could then take help from the ABI management in these areas, ICRISAT said. In addition to ICRISAT, the institutions represented on the ABI board are the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, department of science and technology, the Andhra Pradesh State Seeds Corporation, the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development, and the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation. This ABI project is being run as part of the Technology Innovation Centre (TIC). Also taken up by TIC are plans for an agri-biotech park.
Source: IANS