Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a not-for-profit company of Government of India, has been set up with the idea to serve as a single window for emerging biotech industries. The mandate is to take discovery forward and encourage product development by indigenous biotechnological companies. (Read: Guide to BIRAC funding for businesses in India)

There are a number of initiatives that provide funding opportunities to small an medium sized companies in the country. The following are some of the initiatives introduced by the government to push the biotechnology industry:

Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG)

BIRAC offers Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) to scientist entrepreneurs from research institutes, academic private sector and start-ups who have exciting ideas in nascent or planning stages. This scheme is designed to stimulate commercialization of research discoveries by providing very early stage grants for the development and maturation of those discoveries into marketable product or intellectual property (IP), in particular to help bridge the gap between discovery and invention.