12/02/2020 - S & T | Mainstorming

IAS Parliament 5 years

KEY POINTS

· India is home to the third-largest congregation of startups, after the US, and China. National Bio-Entrepreneurship Competition (NBEC) has seen steady growth in three years, from 1,500+ registrants in 2017 to 2,000+ in 2018, and nearly 3,000 in 2019

· This phenomenal growth signifies the thirst for innovation in all corners of India and the lay Indian’s drive to solve societal challenges.
NBEC’s goal is to unlock bio-entrepreneurship talent all over India.

· Participants develop diverse indigenous technologies and solutions, weighted toward impact, based on scientific fundamentals, and applications.

· The framework is designed such that competitors are judged solely on the merit of the idea and its societal impact.

· It is this idea-first framework that India must implement across other verticals like cybersecurity, energy, defence, urban design, health, and water management to unlock greater innovation-led entrepreneurship.

· A unique feature of NBEC is that it doesn’t just end the day when winners are announced; it then serves as a launchpad for the competitors with the best ideas.

· The number of organisation partners that have been bought into this value proposition has steadily risen, from 10 in 2017 to 17 in 2019, including three international partners.

· These organisations bring diverse operations experience, technical know-how, market reach, and mentorship to the table, proving invaluable to the innovators they partner with and support.

· Carefully structured ideas platforms like NBEC serve as ideal vehicles to effect socio-economic impact at scale across India.

· While NBEC focuses on innovative ideas in the bio-agri-health network, the model can be effectively replicated for other deep science innovation fields like energy, defence, semiconductors, automobile design.