Organizers

Department of Biotechnology

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is an Indian Government Organization set up in 1986 under the Ministry of Science and Technology facilitating research, capacity-building, technology, and enterprise development in the field of biotechnology. DBT has an Autonomous Body- Biotechnology Research and Innovation Council (BRIC) consisting of 13 Institutes, 2 Autonomous Institutes namely, Regional center for Biotechnology, Faridabad and International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi; 2 PSUs namely BIRAC and BIBCOL. During the period of May 2014 to August 2023, DBT has supported 6518 institutes and 2480 NGOs resulting in about 18401 publications and patents over 1044 technologies. In attaining its mission, the DBT actively collaborates with more than 15 countries globally.

Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council

BIRAC is a Section 8 "Not-for-profit Company" set up by Department of Biotechnology, under Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, as an interface agency to promote Industry-Academia interface. Mandate of BIRAC is to nurture and empower the Biotech Innovation Ecosystem in India. To serve various dimensions, BIRAC operates mainly in 3 verticals i.e. Investment schemes, Entrepreneurship Development & Strategic Partnerships. BIRAC works closely with all partners - National and International to leverage the strength and expertise, mobilize resources and extend the outreach of its activities for innovative affordable product development addressing the unmet need.

Ecosystem Enablers

As India’s national investment promotion agency, Invest India acts as a concierge, gateway, and facilitator for every investor, trader, and R&D partner looking to engage with India

The organisation, formed in 2009 as a partnership of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Industry Associations, is committed to guiding and assisting both domestic and global investors, strategic planning and execution of policies, incentives, and initiatives that foster investment, streamline business processes, and support investors throughout their business lifecycle.

In the new mandate, Invest India is entrusted with three key responsibilities: Facilitating investments; Facilitating trade growth and working with the investors and supporting them till they see a return on investments; and Identifying and enabling research and development collaborations, with a focus on deep technology and AI across all sectors from electronics, energy, automotive, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals.

In January 2016, the Government of India launched the "Start-Up India" initiative with the aim of fostering a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation in the country. This ambitious program was introduced to catalyse startup culture and build a strong and inclusive ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship, thereby boosting economic growth, job creation, and technological advancement. The Start-Up India initiative represents a pivotal step in India's journey towards becoming a global hub for startups and innovation.

The key pillars of support for Startups under the Startup India Initiative includes,

Funding and Incentives: The initiative offers exemptions from both Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax for startups meeting eligibility criteria. Additionally, it has established a dedicated fund of funds designed to inject more capital into the burgeoning startup ecosystem, along with a credit guarantee scheme.

Incubation and Industry-Academia Partnerships: The Start-Up India program has led to the establishment of numerous incubators and innovation labs, as well as the organization of events, competitions, and grants to foster collaboration between industry and academia.

Simplification and Handholding: The initiative simplifies various aspects of the startup journey, including regulatory compliance. It also introduces a more streamlined exit process for startups that face challenges, provides legal support, expedites patent applications, and offers a user-friendly website to reduce information asymmetry.

Bharat Startup and Innovation Society (BSIS) is Bharat's first integrated community for startups, innovators, and investors. It serves as a national apex organisation with offices strategically located across key Indian states. As a non-governmental and not-for-profit entity, BSIS employs an industry-led and industry-managed approach, making it a dynamic force in India's burgeoning startup landscape.

As the collective voice for the nation's vibrant startup ecosystem, BSIS bridges startups, investors, mentors, incubators, civil society, and policymakers. Through effective communication and collaboration, BSIS catalyses policy discussions, shapes regulations, and fosters an environment conducive to entrepreneurial innovation.

With a dual mandate to influence policies and stimulate constructive discourse, BSIS engages with stakeholders to champion the interests of startups and ensure regulatory alignment with evolving needs. Committed to driving India's startup revolution, BSIS stands as a pivotal force, fostering collaboration and growth with the collective efforts of industry leaders, policymakers, and the startup community.

Event Partners

Established in 1927, FICCI is the largest and oldest apex business organisation in India. Its history is closely interwoven with India's struggle for independence, its industrialization, and its emergence as one of the most rapidly growing global economies.

Being a non-government, not-for-profit organisation, FICCI is the voice of India's business and industry. From influencing policy to encouraging debate, engaging with policy makers and civil society, FICCI articulates the views and concerns of industry. It serves its members from the Indian private and public corporate sectors and multinational companies, drawing its strength from diverse regional chambers of commerce and industry across states, reaching out to over 2,50,000 companies.

FICCI provides a platform for networking and consensus building within and across sectors and is the first port of call for Indian industry, policy makers and the international business community. FICCI is headquartered in New Delhi and maintains offices in various Indian states and foreign countries.

Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises - ABLE is a not-for-profit pan-India forum that represents the Indian Biotechnology Sector. It was launched in April 2003, after industry leaders felt a need to form an exclusive forum to represent the Indian Biotechnology Sector.

ABLE has over 400 members from all across India representing all verticals of the sector like Agribiotech, Bio-pharma, Industrial biotech, Bioinformatics, Investment banks and Venture Capital firms, leading Research and Academic Institutes and Law Firms and Equipment Suppliers.

The primary focus of ABLE is to accelerate the pace of growth of the Biotechnology sector in India, through partnering with the Government in their biotechnology initiatives to deliver optimal policies and create a positive regulatory environment, encouraging entrepreneurship and investment in the sector, providing a platform for domestic and overseas companies to explore collaboration and partnerships, forging stronger links between academia and industry and showcasing the strengths of the Indian biotech sector.

ABLE showcases India’s biotech sector through events like BioEconomy Conclave, Voice for BT public speaking contest, brings out India BioEconomy Report, BioEconomy Reports for states like Karnataka and sets up the India Pavilion at the BIO International event in the USA annually.

ABLE Council of Presidents, that comprises of all past presidents of the organization, provides valuable inputs for the growth of the Biotech business ecosystem, leveraging their multi-sectoral expertise.

ABLE thus catalyses a symbiotic interface between the industry, the government, academic and research institutes, and domestic and international investors.

About TiE

The Indus Entrepreneurs is a global not-for-profit organization founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship through mentoring, networking, education, incubation, and funding. With currently 15,000 members, including over 3,500+ charter members, spread across a vast network of 60 Chapters in 12 countries, TiE is focused on giving back to the community and generating and nurturing our next generation of entrepreneurs.

ABOUT TiE DELHI-NCR
TiE Delhi-NCR, a vibrant chapter in the TiE Network, has been fostering entrepreneurship for 25 years. It hosts events, mentoring programs, entrepreneurial awards, and investor pitches to strengthen the Indian startup ecosystem. The organization, run by entrepreneurs, corporate executives and senior professionals, aims to help businesses grow by connecting them with experts and nurturing future entrepreneurs and innovators

AiMeD, an Umbrella Association of Indian Manufacturers of Medical Devices, covers all types of Medical Devices, including Consumables, Disposables, Equipments, Instruments, Electronics, Diagnostics and Implants. With a Primary Membership of over 400 Manufacturers and additionally of over 250 Associate Members representing the interest of over 1800 Manufacturers of Medical Devices to address the manufacturer’s problems.

The aim of forming AiMeD is to allow the Indian Government to access a single point of contact and provide various services to the manufacturers like Advocacy on policy issues, Information services, Regulations for Medical Devices, Education and Training, services, Testing Assistance and guidance for Quality Certification (ISO, CE, GMP), Lobbying for funding for R&D from the Government, encourage innovations from member units, Improve clinician and patient access to the modern, innovative and reliable Medical Device technologies through organizing and supporting Meeting, Seminars, Symposia, Exhibitions and Demonstrations and also, to promote global harmonization and respect for the Indian Device Industry.

Session Partners

Established in 1993, the Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) is a section 8 non-profit organization that serves as a prominent apex industry body dedicated to promoting the alternate capital industry and nurturing a thriving investment environment in India. IVCA is resolutely committed to bolstering the ecosystem by advocating regulatory interventions, facilitating constructive dialogues with the Government of India, policymakers, and regulators. This collaborative approach fosters increased entrepreneurial activity, innovation, job creation, and contributes to positioning India as a preeminent fund management hub.

With 370+ members and a combined AUM of over $280 billion, IVCA's esteemed membership comprises the most active domestic and global entities, including VCs, PEs, Infrastructure Funds, Real Estate Funds, Credit Funds, Limited Partners, Investment Companies, Family Offices, Corporate VCs, CAT III Funds, Hedge Funds, and Knowledge Partners. IVCA stands as the sole industry association for alternate capital funds engaged in investments within India, and it is collectively owned by industry members.

The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) is an independent non-profit, non-governmental, and non-partisan organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in New York, Chicago, Boston, Houston, San Francisco, Mumbai and New Delhi. USISPF aims to strengthen the partnership between the United States and India. It is a trusted partner for businesses, non-profit organizations, and federal and state governments in both countries, facilitating collaborations to enhance the bilateral relationship between India and the U.S. The mission of USISPF is to build, enable, advocate, and facilitate partnerships between the United States and India by providing a platform for all stakeholders to come together in new ways, creating meaningful opportunities with the potential to improve the lives of citizens in both countries

Sathguru Management Consultants (SMC) is a 40 year old firm catalyzing growth across segment of life sciences. With an in-house team of more than 200 multi-disciplinary professionals and presence in US, South Asia and Africa, SMC combines forward looking strategic perspective with pragmatic implementation support.

SMC advises leading corporates on strategizing and actualizing sustainable global growth, policy makers on enabling frameworks and catalytic interventions, investors across PE, debt and non-dilutive funding. SMC’s corporate advisory group converges sector depth with expertise in strategy, operations, investment banking and sustainability. SMC also enjoys unique presence in technology transfer and innovation advancement with decades of cross-border experience. SMC has also been engaged in South Asia and Africa in implementation development projects, executive education and driving digital transformation. Finally, SMC’s affiliate Sathguru Catalysers manages VC and PE funds investing in innovation led and sustainable focused Indian ventures with global value realization potential.

Teamwork Arts is a highly versatile production company with roots in the performing arts, social action and the corporate world. For over 30 years, Teamwork Arts has taken India to the world and brought the world to India, presenting the finest of Indian performers, writers , change makers and visual artistes in the knowledge and arts space in India and abroad. Every year, we produce over 33 festivals in 42 cities and 17 countries in the fields of performing & visual arts and literature. We produce the world's largest literary gathering: the annual Jaipur Literature Festival; JLF international now travels to the US, UK, Canada, Australia and the Maldives and soon in Europe.

Even amidst the upheaval and unsettling times of 2020 and through 2021, Teamwork Arts successfully launched the digital series, ‘JLF Brave New World’ and ‘Words Are Bridges’, which were viewed by over 4.8 million people in their first season. Through its digital avatar, the Jaipur Literature Festival reached over 27 million viewers in January 2021. Our initiative ‘Art Matters‘ empowers artistes across India to collaborate across genres by commissioning them to create new works thereby effecting change & raising awareness. The digital series ‘Be Inspired’ was launched in 2021 – a series that crystal-gazes into the future with conversations on science, technology, innovation, environment and more.

India Health Fund, set up by Tata Trusts in 2017, is a not-for-profit company that funds and de-risks the development of science & technology-based innovations for communicable diseases, develops partnerships in India and other developing countries to scale these solutions and collaborates to develop financing mechanisms for their development and scale.

IHF focuses on providing grants as patient capital to start-ups, small and medium sized companies for the development and validation of prototype-ready innovations which align with national priorities and has a particular focus on affordable solutions for primary care. This funding bridges a critical funding gap (the “valley of death”), which has limited the development and adoption of these solutions. It also catalyzes further funding and collaborations to help them scale in India and other LMICs.

IHF has established itself as India's only dedicated funding source for innovation in infectious diseases. It is one of the few funding organizations worldwide focusing on infectious diseases. IHF recently announced India’s first pooled fund for cutting-edge innovations in diagnostics and digital tools in infectious diseases with BIRAC, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.

ISBA was started in 2004 by a passionate team of professionals from Science & Technology Entrepreneur Parks (STEP) and Technology Business Incubators (TBI). Today it has grown to a membership base of 130+ incubators that are into entrepreneurship development custom writing here and incubation.

ISBA is registered as a not-for-profit Society under the Societies Registration Act 1860. Its main objective is “To promote business incubation activities in the country through exchange of information, sharing of experience, and other networking assistance among Indian Business Incubators (TBIs), Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Parks (STEPs) and other related organizations engaged in the promotion of start-up enterprises.” ISBA is the only pan India network of Business Incubators and has an abundance of expertise and knowledge base in technology business Incubation that has been acquired over a period of 25 years.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is the specialized health agency of the United Nations with 194 member states. WHO’s mission is to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable. Access to affordable and adequate health care is a human right and universal healthcare is a key principle guiding WHO’s work.

The World Health Organization is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends. WHO leads and champions global efforts to achieve better health for all.

Access to effective, safe, quality-assured and affordable medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and devices is the key to progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) and sustainable development goals (SDGs).

International Facilitation Partner

Global Business Inroads (GBI) is an international platform aiming to accelerate technology access and deployment for the UNSDGs, focusing on cleantech, biotech, and digital sectors. GBI has a global presence with registered offices in India, Europe, USA and UK with networks in Africa, South East Asia, LATAM, etc. With 15 years of experience, GBI has collaborated with 300+ organizations globally, supporting them in internationalizing in emerging markets and developing ecosystems with global and regional stakeholders, including building local capacities, government liaison, strategic financing and investment consulting. GBI also represents global programs in India and has partnerships with 250+ stakeholders worldwide, including technology clusters, incubators, accelerators, R&D labs, research institutes, and universities. GBI, with its expertise, infrastructure, network, process and experience, facilitates business, trade and research collaborations, mapping needs for technology interventions and connecting solutions to drive the deployment of innovation.