The government will soon launch a special incentives scheme to support 75 start-ups in areas of telemedicine, digital health and artificial intelligence (AI) to coincide with the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ being celebrated from 15th August this year. 

The scheme will be launched by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Public Sector Enterprise under the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. In addition, an e-office of BIRAC has also been launched.

BIRAC has lent funding support of over Rs 2,128 crores to more than 1,500 Startups, Enterprises and SMEs. From supporting less than 50 Biotechnology Startups in 2012 with Innovative Funding of less than Rs 10 crore, the BIRAC is now funding over 5,000 BT Startups with over 2,500 crore. By the year 2024, the BIRAC targets to support more than 10,000 BT Startups.

BIRAC has an in-house BIRAC 3i portal to its credit, where all the applications and proposals are submitted online. This portal was launched in February 2010 and is a dynamic, robust, scalable application for Science and Innovative Research Fund Management wherein various stakeholders like companies, institutes and individuals submit their proposals online.