The National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad (NASI) and Biotech Consortium India Limited (BCIL) will organise two day workshop on the February 27- 28, 2017 to target women technocrats and faculty members final year students at the Master’s level in the age group of 20-35 who wish to become entrepreneurs. The purpose of this workshop is to orient them to various facets of a start up and will consist of lectures from renowned members from the sector who will share their experiences, a field visit to the Biotech Park for Women and an interaction with the Women entrepreneurs.

NASI had requested BCIL to be the focal point for organizing the entrepreneurship development programmes in the country. The series of entrepreneurship development programmes shall be organized by BCIL in coordination with the partnering organizations at each location.

NASI is keen to promote skill development in the country by encouraging programmes such as S&T entrepreneurship development through NASI- New Initiatives Committee constituted under the Chairpersonship of Prof. Manju Sharma, Former Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Biotechnology.

BCIL has organized several programmes in the past in association with the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Government of India, and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India to create awareness on grant writing, business opportunities, IPR, technology transfer and  biosafety issues. BCIL has also conducted several series of sensitization as well comprehensive sector-specific Entrepreneurship Development Workshops for DBT in the eight North Eastern States of India.

Golden Jubilee Biotech Park for Women Society was established with Mission of providing opportunities for professionally qualified women to take to a career of remunerative self-employment through the organization of environment friendly biotechnological enterprises. In a country which is said to have the world’s youngest population by 2020, investments in education and skill development  are seen to be crucial, especially training girls more so in the sciences as a stream where girls are present in large numbers. The number of girls who are passing out and looking for job opportunities are increasing. While the IT sector has done well in providing lots of opportunities to absorb them, the biotech sector has a long way to go. Thanks to the proactive measures taken by the DST and DBT a lot of measures have been put in place to see that women in science get more opportunities to choose research as a career path and spin off entrepreneurial activities. This is where the Biotech Park for Women, even today, stands out as a good example of having provided a platform for first generation entrepreneurs. The success of the Park has been in the constant hand holding and mentoring provided to the women in the Park.

The Park has focussed on nurturing first generation entrepreneurs and 80 per cent occupants fall under this category. Over the years the Park has mentored these entrepreneurs to become successful in their ventures. The Park has also played a very active role in offering training programmes in EDP (Entrepreneurship Development Programmes) for women in life sciences, held and participated in fairs promoting entrepreneurship for women to propagate the idea of self employment in this sector. Also, with the start-up culture growing in this sector there are many prospective women interested in being part of the Park. A 5000 sq ft incubation facility has been set up with help of BIRAC to help women incubatees. The Park also has entered into a MoU with colleges to encourage students to intern in the Park and undergo EDP programmes to help them think on start ups. In the past few years over 500 such students interned within the Park with help of the occupant companies and in all the park has turned over 500 skilled women entrepreneurs, technocrats and workers.