MIT Arts, Design and Technology University, Pune based Atal Incubator Centre (AIC) incubatee Pramod Priya Ranjan has been awarded a grant of Rs 50 lakh by the Biotechnology Industry Research Association Council (BIRAC) for designing an innovative menstrual cup which also happens to be the first such product to be designed in India.
The grant has been awarded under the 16th edition of a scheme called 'BIG' that is Biotechnology Ignition Grant held in January 2020, while the list of awardees was announced on August 23. BIG is the largest early-stage Biotech Funding Program in India.
Ranjan along with Dr Nachiket Thakur is a Co-founder and Director of a start-up called Care Form Labs Private Limited, which is based in Ranchi and start-up was incubated at AIC-MIT ADT Incubator Forum Pune.
"The grant was allocated to the company for purely product development of an Innovative Menstrual Cup on which my team and I have been working for over a year now. Currently, the process of Due Diligence is happening and we will mostly ask for Rs 30 lakh for this," said Ranjan.
The startup was selected amongst the top 14 finalists at the National Innovative Challenge 2020 by Youth Co: Lab supported by United National Development Program (UNDP) and NITI Aayog.
The team members headed by Ranjan includes Dr Dhimant Panchal, Director of Design Center, MIT ID, Dr Nachiket Thakur, H.O.D. Transportation Design, MIT ID and Renu Vyas, Principal MIT School of Bioengineering as mentors while Alomi K Parikh and Shreya Yengul are designers have already built a few prototypes and will do a soft launch for the product soon.
Pramod Priya Ranjan incubated at Atal Incubation Center (AIC) - MIT ADT Incubator Forum, Pune last year where he has been supported extensively to develop the Business and Idea.
The Incubator is supported by Atal Innovation center, MIT-ADT, Pune said, Mohit Dubey, CEO, AIC - MIT ADTU. Prof. Dr Mangesh Karad, Executive President, MIT-ADT University, Dr Mohit Dubey, CEO, AIC - MIT ADTU, Dr, Rahul More, Director, Strategy, Innovation, and Operations congratulate Pramod Priya Ranjan for his successes.