AIC-CCMB's 'Grand Tour' to visit TS colleges, promote entrepreneurship among students

Hyderabad: Atal Incubation Centre–CCMB, the start-up incubator of the Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology, flagged off its innovation yatra at its campus on Tuesday. The yatra, called AIC-CCMB Gran Tourismo (Grand Tour), to catalyse student innovations to drive India's bio-economy will visit colleges in Warangal and Siddipet districts between 4 and 6 January 2023.

The tour is intended to promote entrepreneurship from smaller cities and towns of Telangana, especially among students studying biotechnology, pharmacy, biology, and other streams.

Dr. Madhusudana Rao, CEO of AIC-CCMB, said innovation should not be confined by geography or the lack of resources. "Through this innovation yatra, we aim to promote innovators and entrepreneurs in the life sciences sector, engage with them in meaningful ways, and provide them with a platform for their inventions. We will offer students from various colleges a chance for pre-incubation incentives, expert guidance, and even funding for their start-ups. In the long run, we hope to strengthen the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in every corner of Telangana."

Speaking at the launch of the yatra, Dr. Manjula Reddy, acting director of CCMB, said, "AIC-CCMB is doing a commendable job in making the young PhD students of CCMB into successful innovators. This programme is a great initiative taken by AIC-CCMB to instill entrepreneurship in young research scholars across the state of Telangana, and we hope that they will also be successful in making future innovators from this part of the country."

AIC-CCMB's Gran Tourismo will make stops at SR Engineering University and National Institute of Technology, Warangal; Surabhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Siddipet; BV Raju Institute of Technology, Narsapur; and MLR Institute of Technology, Dundigal, Hyderabad.