CHENNAI: The Central Institute of Brackishwater Agriculture (CIBA), Chennai is working along with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) in developing a ‘Knowledge Paper’ which would act as a database of all leading researches at the institute.
“This base paper would be a summary of all research outputs and technologies available at CIBA along with their economics,” T Ravisankar, Principal Scientist at CIBA, told Express.
He added that any investor who has plans to invest in aquaculture would have a fair idea about various cost components, avenues of income, expected income level, once they go through this knowledge paper.
CIBA scientists claimed that the idea was to primarily attract startups, particularly those along the 1010-km-long coast in the state which employs one-third of Ph.D. research scholars from CIBA annually.
“Though a significant number of researchers get employed in state fisheries and private feed mill companies, the number of researchers joining startups were increasing, of late, and many have turned into entrepreneurs in their native villages.”, Ravisankar added.
This knowledge paper would mainly focus on three major aquaculture avenues - hatcheries for shrimps, feed mills and health products for aquatic animals. P K Patil, senior scientist, Agri Business Incubator, CIBA, said that once all relevant information was made available at one place and in single instant, FICCI has assured facilitating funding requirements of startups who volunteered to invest.
“The FICCI would act as a catalyst in promoting the startups and possible handholding for a period of three years within which they can establish themselves in the market,” said Ruban Hobday, Head, FICCI-Tamil Nadu State Council.
He added that the FICCI would also help in identifying angel investors, identify potential funders, once startup is established and would also liaise with the government of Tamil Nadu for making the situation conductive to growth of startups.
This was an initiative under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s (ICAR’s) start-up India programme for brackwaterish aquaculture. Startups only when registered with the Agri Business Incubator at CIBA would receive funds from the government of India along with external support for their aquaculture based enterprises.
what & How of it
■ The base paper would be a summary of all research outputs and technologies available at CIBA along with their economics
■ The idea is to attract startups, particularly along the 1,010-km coast, which employs one-third of PhD scholars from CIBA
■ Paper would focus on three aquaculture avenues — hatcheries for shrimps, feed mills and health products for aquatic animals
■ Once all information is collated, FICCI will facilitate funding requirements of startups, who volunteer to invest
■ FICCI will help in identifying angel investors and potential funding agencies and will even liaise with government for conducive environment