CIPHET to Establish Business Incubator for Agro-processing

Ludhiana, July 2:



Aiming to provide technical and operational skills to potential entrepreneurs interested in setting processing units, Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering & Technology (CIPHET) is going to establish Business Planning and Development Unit (BPD) under World Bank funded National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP). It is the part of Network of Indian Agri-business Incubators (NIABI), which consists of 5 ICAR institutes (IARI, IVRI, CIRCOT, CIFT and INRJAFT) and 5 State Agricultural Universities (TNAU, AAU, BAU, HAU and JNKVV) with Agri-Business Incubator-ICARISAT as lead center. The institute is one of the among 12 ICAR institutes across the country selected for this purpose.CIPHET Director (Acting) Dr S.N Jha said that BPD Unit would help potential entrepreneurs in establishment of businesses with all the necessary resources that the start-up needs to evolve and grow as a mature business. "This would include necessary infrastructure support, technology, prototype development support, research assistance, help in managerial support, business consulting assistance and detailed project reports etc,." he added. "The objective of a BPD unit is to minimize risk of budding entrepreneurs by providing them incubation facilities at the institute. For this incubatee should obtained membership of the incubator. Few selected members can start business utilizing CIPHET facilities under the guidance of technical experts, supported by a group of managers" said Er Prasoon Verma, Principal Investigator of BPD unit at CIPHET. China has successful model of about 500 technology based business incubators. Normally it takes 3-4 years to incubate an entrepreneur, but in food processing sector this time can be as short as six months. Initially the project is approved up to March, 2014 but likely to be extended for further five years based on performance.
News From: http://www.7StarNews.com