Non-Covid startups, incubators idling
Startups with focus on Covid-related innovations, are making good progress as the demand is high for them
image for illustrative purpose
New Delhi IMPACTED by the continued lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic, incubation cells across the country continue to carry out innovations. The operations, however, remain restricted due to localised lockdowns, lack of public transport and disruption in logistics chain and supply. With primary focus on bio-technologies and innovations to tackle the pandemic, non-Covid related projects have taken a backseat for the time being.
Ashutosh Pastor, Manager, Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, says that although the continued lockdown has restricted the operations to an extent, incubatees are allowed to access the facilities for the ongoing projects. FITT receives funding from various donors such as Pfizer along with support through National Initiative for Development and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) scheme, an initiative of Department of Science and Technology (GoI), MeitY Startup Hub, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), among many others.
"We have two-three innovation centres in the campus and around 40 startups right now. Our new incubation building will be operational by August-September. However, it was supposed to be unveiled by June. But once this facility is open, we will have space for around 100 startups at a time. We will be having a cumulative incubation space of almost 70,000 sq. feet by another two three months," Pastor told Bizz Buzz.
Pastor pointed to the fact that although startups are running with limited capacity, but those of Covid relief are on full swing.
"Some of the startups were already working on solutions related to Covid. There is one startup called Nano Clean Label, working on nose filters and hybrid mask and their work has scaled up. Textile startups focusing on compression fabrics have also started making masks. Such startups have scaled up their capacities. For non-Covid innovators it was a big challenge since business model got disrupted. But even for Covid related startups who were working with the hospitals for validating medical devices have been impacted. Anyone working with schools or Delhi metro, they have been impacted," Pastor said.
He highlighted the fact that since 2020, startups and incubators have been adapting to the new way of coexisting with the pandemic and provisions such as roster, limited staff, online webinars and sessions have been put in place.
Meanwhile, IIITD Innovation and Incubation Centre, New Delhi, has been shut down due to the lockdown restriction, which has further dented the revenue generation of the cell.
"For incubation centres, we have an operational model in terms of survival of incubators and for the companies. For the moment, in-house activities have stopped, so this has further created hurdles in bringing mentors to startups. Startups are not able to generate revenues and we get some minimal charges from the incubatees, which is subsequently hurting our financial health," Alok Nath Jha, Chief Operations Officer, IIIT Innovation and Incubation Centre said.
"We have a design lab with high-end machines, but of no use right now. We have paid Rs 10 lakh towards Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) for this equipment. That is a loss for us now. Similarly, we bought a 3-D printer for Rs 50 lakh in January last year and barely made any use of it as lockdown hit us then," he added.
