Mr. Ankit Alok Bagaria, Co-Founder, Loopworm:- Works into an agri-biotechnology startup that takes inspiration from nature to convert organic waste into valuable products promoting health, nourishment and well-being for all forms of life.

“We at Loopworm feel that the upcoming Union Budget 2023 must attempt to positively transform the agriculture and biotechnology sectors in India from a differentiated lens.

When it comes to the agriculture sector in India, we have seen in the previous years that most of the time the budgetary money allocated goes into various subsidies or loans. While loans and subsidies are important for agri-stakeholders, the grant money to scale up innovative ideas to PoC to pilots to commercialization is minimal. On the other hand, the Indian biotechnology space also faces a similar dilemma. In the previous year’s Budget, a significantly large part of the allocated amount that went to the Department of Biotechnology was spent on autonomous bodies and institutes focussing on biotech research; however, support provided in terms of commercialization to start-ups or corporates remained limited.

Thus, in the upcoming Budget 2023, we would be happy to see more focus and support is given towards supporting commercialization of biotechnology companies or start-ups. Given that biotech machinery and equipment is quite expensive in India as of today, financial support with loans and subsidies could help a lot in accelerating commercialization and scale up. On the other hand, when it comes to agri-allied or agri-tech innovations and startups, we expect the Budget 2023 to make scale-up grants available as well, independent of whether or not any start-up has availed a smaller grant previously. If the start-up is ready, they should be helped with the money to scale up. Furthermore, the Budget should also be promoting precision agriculture and unconventional forms of agriculture such as Algae farming, insect farming, etc. with special allocations or incentives.”