The Hindu Business Line : Business incubation meet to encourage innovation

(From left): The Minister for Science and Technology, Mr Kapil Sibal, with Mr Y.K. Modi, President, FICCI, and Mr Rachid Benmessaoud, Operations Advisor, World Bank, at a press conference on `Global forum on business incubation' in the Capital on Wednesday. — Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , Aug. 11

IN order to encourage innovation and share the best incubator management practices adopted globally, the Department of Science and Technology (DST), along with Info Dev Program of World Bank, University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry will organise a `Global forum on business incubation' here in October.

The programme, to be organised with the theme `Creating conditions for innovation' from October 14-19, expects to gather around 300 participants including 125-150 international delegates representing business incubators. About 100 Indian participants representing Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park (STEP) and Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) will also be invited to attend this training session. This was announced by the Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mr Kapil Sibal, on Wednesday at a conference.

Info Dev is a global grant facility managed by the World Bank and is supported by a consortium of donors that include the World Bank, governments and companies such as IBM and Motorola. It works with an aim to help developing countries and their international partners maximise the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in combating poverty and promoting broad-based sustainable development.

Worldwide, there are around 4,000 operational incubators. While the US has over 1,000 incubators, Europe has around 1,000 of them including 300 from Germany. Among the developing countries, China has set up around 400 incubators. Other countries catching up with the concept include Korea, Japan and Malaysia.

In India, the concept is yet to catch up. In 2000, the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board of the Department of Science and Technology, initiated a TBI scheme to promote start-up companies.