The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), Bengaluru recently conducted the launch of three of its initiatives - Karnataka Startup Advancement Program (K-SAP) BIO 50, Centre of Excellence in Agri-Innovation and Technology Business Incubator. The event was graced by the presence of  Shri K. J. George, Hon’ble Minister of Large & Medium Scale Industries, IT, BT & ST, Government of Karnataka and Shri N. H. Shivashankara Reddy, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Karnataka, along with Principal Secretary,  Department of IT, BT &  S&T, Govt. of Karnataka, Shri Gaurav Gupta.

The state Cabinet has decided to fund the setting up of a Centre for Excellence in Agriculture Innovation. The IT&BT Department will provide Rs 5 crore, while the agriculture department will give Rs 10 crore. K-SAP- Bio 50 has received a grant worth Rs 4 crore to spur its initiatives, and the K-Tech Technology Business Incubator has received about Rs 6 crore.

“The scientists in our country are doing a wonderful job. The government of Karnataka is very happy to join hands with C-CAMP which is an initiative of Government of India. We are happy to help you out in your ventures and you have our full support”, said K J George, Hon’ble Minister of Large & Medium Scale Industries, IT, BT & ST, Government of Karnataka while addressing the audience during the inaugural ceremony.

“In the agricultural system, there are a lot of missing links. Although we are focusing on production we are not giving enough importance to processing and marketing. We need to work on this. C-CAMP as an incubation centre can provide with few solutions to address such problems. There are so many innovations happening in India that can be applied in agriculture”, stated Shri N. H. Shivashankara Reddy, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Karnataka during the inauguration.

In line with C-SAP, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) in association with Karnataka Biotechnology and Information Technology Services (KBITS) and Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre (BBC) has initiated a 1 year equity based mentorship and capacity building program for startups based out of Karnataka, the Karnataka Startup Advancement Program (K-SAP) BIO 50.

The main objective of this program is to meaningfully engage and work closely with Karnataka startups to enhance their odds of success and to enable startups achieve faster traction in their key milestones”, explained Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO, C-CAMP.

The K-Tech Agri-Innovation Centre at C-CAMP will attempt to promote deep-science/technology driven entrepreneurship in the agri-sector, leading to innovation, economic development and job creation in the agricultural domain. The Centre is envisioned to identify specific agri-health issues through an immersion programme, bring innovators together to develop solutions for these issues and subsequently support and nurture them to bring their solutions to the market. Using this multi-step process, C-CAMP aims to identify and support at least 8-10 path-breaking innovations with national impact in the agriculture field and facilitate the validation and deployment of these innovations.

With recent support from the Govt. of Karnataka, C-CAMP has collaborated with University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS– B), GKVK to identify a space in UAS-B to set up the K-Tech Technology Business Incubator for scaling up its efforts in nurturing innovative life science and biotech start-ups through incubation.