BioVoice News April 2017 Issue 11 Volume 1 | Page 11

What has been your experiences with the BioInvest where you have been a part since its inception either years ago? The event has been a connect between the startups, entrepreneurs and the funding agencies as well as investors since its beginning more than eight years ago. The most important point noticed is that earlier we did not have enough grants available that could take the ideas from paper to at least proof of concept Be it political bosses, industry, regulators, academia or others, all must play their part and move towards single direction. Otherwise we will be again discussing how to achieve $100 billion industry by 2025. stage. Today there is lot of scope for startups to get noticed by potential investors. Besides, the funding agencies too have a wider scope now. The scenario was different even five years ago from what it is now. You see a good number of investors in the room today and the mood is visible different as well. It was a different case then. The halls used to be filled with people yet only lucky few would manage some funds. That’s the difference! How realistic is the target of $ 100 billion industry by 2020? Is it achievable? See one of the basic thing is that it is like tying you both hands, legs, closing your eyes and then saying you do it now! When the vision of $100 billion industry was made, we looked at the constraints too and there was a time frame for resolving these constraints. Have we been able to address these issues within a time frame? My answer is no! So, you can blame 100 people for that. You can blame government, policymakers, industry or any stakeholder. But it must be remembered that it requires collective effort if the dream has to be realized. You need to unshackle things that are holding the industry back. Our country is an agriculture country. Everybody confuses agriculture biotechnology as genetically modified one. There are hundreds of non-GM processes that could be done with the biotechnology. Those need to be supported and managed. There are hundreds of things that can be done through plant breeding, marker assisted selection (MAS) technology etc. Nobody is stopping but the point is stigma, regulatory hassles and lack of investments. The investments are not happening because we have shattered the investor confidence by doing trivial things few times. By the time, you try to woo them again, it is too late. There are few small things we simply haven’t tied up together. It is not just becau