Day 2 of the Most Vibrant congregation of India’s largest community of Biotech Ecosystem enablers BIG Conclave 6.0 concluded on 28 November 2020.

The 2-days annual innovation showcase event called BIG Conclave 6.0, organized by BIRAC and SIIC IIT Kanpur, was concluded on 28th November 2020.

Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh- Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) along with Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC), IIT Kanpur had organized the 6th edition of its annual flagship event BIG Conclave. It is the 6th Edition of the event which is themedas ‘Resilience Redefined’ and has brought Technical Experts, Global Business Leaders, Innovators and Entrepreneurs on a common virtual platform to unveil the trailblazing innovations supported by BIRAC through its Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) Program. The event kicked off on Friday, November 27 on a Virtual Platform Floor.This two day event aimed to benefit the innovators by garnering the resources and network indispensable for their success. The whole event saw a footfall of 700+ audience and 93 booth registrations.

The Day2 of the event kicked off with a Inspirational Talk on Social Innovation by Dr. Vishal Rao, Founder, Innaumation Medical Devices. He highlighted that Great Innovations comes with collaboration and not by competition and also shared some key insights on design thinking to identify and solve social problems. Dr. Rao is the innovator of 1$ speaking device for throat cancer patients - an innovation that has been considered among the 100 global social innovations across the globe.

The confab session had representations from Bharat Innovation Fund, BIRAC and CDSCO to highlight how the whole ecosystem evolved during lockdown period to support the most relevant innovations. ‘While we were worried that this pandemic may hit our startups hard, but the way our startups have responded, has built even a greater confidence to our innovation ecosystem’ said - Dr Manish Diwan, Head - Strategic Partnership & Entrepreneurship Development, BIRAC. Dr Rubina Bose, Deputy Drugs Controller (India) at Central Drugs Standard Control Organization highlighted her personal anecdotes on how CDSCO fast tracked the approvals and helped the startups in clearing regulatory hurdles. The Investor-startup duo session highlighted key insights on building relationship between startup and its investor.

"Passion is sales collateral and the endorsement that you can bring really helps in the early stage of the startups" – says Ms Padmaja Ruparel, Cofounder Indian Angel Network.

In the FireSide Chat session with Mr. Pavan Choudary, Chairman, Medical Technology Association of India (MTAI) and M.D, Vygon India and Mr. Subhadeep Sanyal, VC Partner at Omnivore some interesting opinions on product branding and positioning were discussed. Dr. Soumitra Pathare, Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy at ILS discussed the need of good mental health amongst startups. The event concluded with a special address by Padma Bhushan Prof. G Padmanabhan, Former Director IISC Bangalore followed by announcement of the winners of the best startup booth. MediAsha Technologies, Revy Environmental Solutions and Urinalytics were the winners.

If the startups can embibe the collaborative & partnership culture of the BIG ecosystem, it will immensely benefit our country. - Prof. Bandyopadhyay, Professor-in-charge, SIIC IIT Kanpur, opined in his closing remarks.

About SIIC IIT Kanpur - www.siicincubator.com

Established in the year 2000, Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC), IIT Kanpur is one of the oldest technology business incubators with many successes under its belt such as Nocca Robotics, CuradevBiopharma, Weather-Risk Advisory, PHOOL, GeoKno, E-spin Nanotech, Aarav Unmanned Systems, and HelpUsGreen. With our fair share of successful as well as failed start-ups in our portfolio of more than 120 startups, having raised hundreds of crores and generated more than 3000 jobs, we have developed the experience base and ecosystem that become key ingredients in the development of early-stage, technology-focused startups spanning across the domains of agriculture, healthcare, aerospace, energy, water, education, etc.

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