Niti-Aayog has chosen the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) for hosting the ₹10-crore Atal Incubation Centre aimed at identifying promising start-ups, creating facilities and guiding them to success in the field of biotechnology.

CCMB, a constituent laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), is among the 10 institutions across the country to be chosen for the facility and the only one in the Telugu States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, said Director Rakesh K. Mishra at a press conference.

According to the news in a leading news daily, The Hindu, about 3,800 government and private institutions were vying to host the incubation centre with 230 applying from within Telangana alone, but CCMB got the nod and the new facility would come up on its campus at Uppal, said Dr. Mishra.

The Central government has set up the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) under NITI Aayog for promoting a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country as it felt the need for creating high-class incubation facilities with necessary infrastructure, he said.

NITI Aayog’s support through the Mission would help catalyse the efforts of the start-ups in biotechnology to scale up as successful entrepreneurs, he said. Upcoming firms would also be engaged with issues like intellectual property agencies, regulators, seed funders, business developers, research institutions etc.

The ongoing skill training programmes, research strength of the centre, biotechnology industry’s maturity here and the Telangana government’s support would serve as an ideal platform to take entrepreneurship in biotechnology to the next level, Dr. Mishra observed.

His colleague N. Madhusudhan Rao said there was a lot of activity on developing point of care devices for various human and non-human diseases, to capture the shifting therapy from drugs to biologics, to engage in big data analysis for precision medicine and in the area of stem cell therapies.

About Atal Innovation Mission

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) under NITI Aayog is aimed at promoting a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. It aims to create high-class incubation facilities with necessary infrastructure in terms of capital equipment and operating facilities, coupled with the availability of sectoral experts for mentoring the start-ups. The scheme is known as Atal Incubation Centre scheme.  The incubation centres would support and encourage start-ups in the sectors like manufacturing, transport, energy, health, education, agriculture, water and sanitation etc. The scheme focuses on the establishment of incubation centres in underserved and unserved areas to support inclusive growth. Under the scheme, Atal Incubation Centre can be established either in publicly funded institutions or Private sector funded institutions or in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.