Industry Institution Innovation Clusters

There is consistent demand and need of MSMEs for technology upgradation, technology transfer, product & process optimization, mechanization, reverse engineering etc.  Many of these units do not have in-house R&D capabilities and lack coordination with research institutions/technical experts and are also not able to articulate their challenges. The Council is supporting MSME by carrying out technology need assessment of various industrial clusters and encouraging them in adopting tech-interventions for increased productivity and competitiveness.  The innovation clusters are being created to identify unmet needs of industrial clusters by linking them with neighbouring institutions as well as other institutions of eminence for providing interventions.  

The Council has already set up Industry-Institution Innovation Clusters in Secondary Agriculture sector with the support of BIRAC, DBT-GOI. The program being implemented in collaboration with technical partners has led to establishment of Early Translation Accelerator at National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute and Centre of Innovation & Applied Bio-processing for developing/validating state relevant technologies for transfer to industry.  Further, 5 Industry Innovation Clusters have been set at Ludhiana, Amritsar, Patiala/Sangrur, Bathinda and Jalandhar in collaboration with technical partners i.e. PAU, GNDU, SLIET, MRSPTU and LPU respectively for handholding and addressing the technical challenges of local Food Processing Units.  The bottlenecks of about 350 industrial units have been identified which include processing challenges i.e. shelf life concerns, browning/discoloration, fungal infestation, quality deterioration; product challenges in terms of market driven novel innovative products, demand for natural colours especially in bakery items, chemical free technologies, value addition of waste generated, storage & handling problems as well as requirement for low cost mechanized versions & equipments. Moreover, 5 start-ups in secondary agriculture domain selected from Punjab have been supported and nurtured through BioNest-Panjab University. The Council has also initiated technology gap assessment in other clusters viz. sanitary cluster, sport goods cluster and signed MoU with 4 Industrial Associations for the purpose.