View Point 1
Entrepreneurship is not everyone’s cup of tea. It depends on a number of factors. NER is a small geographic region with limited resources and opportunities. In today’s world, financial stability is the paramount concern for every individual. Just after completion of study, a biology graduate or postgraduate thinks of his/her financial stability. To be an entrepreneur, one needs to have lot many prerequisites including money, space, and market potential. Usually a just passed-out student finds it difficult to start a new venture from scratch. In the NER region, exposure of the students to the existing industries is very limited and as a result, in during the study period, one hardly gets a glimpse of industry and product development. Without such exposure to industry, a student can’t gather adequate courage to be an entrepreneur suddenly risking his time and money. To change the situation, I would prefer to have reorientation of the academic syllabus of the universities so that the students can get adequate exposure to industries during their study period. Without the firsthand knowledge of entrepreneurship, nobody will take the guts to be entrepreneurs. Moreover, anything in biological field needs time and space with preferably good investment as biology itself a very slow process to understand and execute. Without having firsthand exposure to existing companies, it could be like jumping in to a pond without knowing how to swim. One may or may not survive. So, at first one has to gather firsthand experience to learn the basics, so that the environment of entrepreneurship grows. Otherwise, it would remain a mere myth in biological science.
Dibyajyoti Khaund
Don Bosco University
Guwahati
View Point 2
Being an entrepreneur is not easy; it needs real guts and ideas. None but oneself can only generate guts and ideas. Biological system is too complex and classy. Those who understand it find it interesting; else it’s a total mess. One graduate or postgraduate student must need to understand the situation and need of the field during the study period. His academic study gives him the insight in to the biological system. But he or she need to understand the needs of the society on his/her own. Then only one can be an entrepreneur. Everyone has his/her own expertise and roadblocks. Once one is confirmed with his or her expertise level, then surely he or she can go for a startup. Biology based companies are rare in the NER region and the needs are very high. To accommodate this, one can utilize the hidden resources of NER and can explore it. Entrepreneurs need good funds and manpower. Now a days, there are government organizations like BIRAC that are helping entrepreneurs with needed grants to start with. There are private parties too who would like to invest in small-scale startups. One needs to think in that way. Yes, it’s time-consuming and may not give an instant financial stability, which is true with every business. During the academic days, students need to visit different companies and need to understand the need of the region and one’s self expertise. Ones these two things are done, then windows of opportunity start opening automatically. Different incubation centres are also coming up for that cause, though they are limited in number in this region. NER is the biodiversity hotspot for flora and fauna, and biology has immense scope to explore this diversity of NER.
Jebin Sultana
Nalbari College
Nalbari
View Point 3
When we say biology, it actually means zoology, botany, biotechnology, environmental science, life science, medicine, veterinary science, etc. So when the term itself is so vast, then imagine really how vast the area is. Students from different departments and disciplines in biology have different needs and understanding of the subject. The NER region is rich in respect of its unexplored flora and fauna. This region has a small population compared to the entire country and the needs of this region are different from the rest of India. Graduates and postgraduates in biology can easily identify these needs. Being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean one needs to have sophisticated labs and highly talented manpower. The basic requirement is the idea and the necessity. Now a days, there are various funding agencies which help the entrepreneurs to initiate start-ups. BIRAC, SERB, IITG, DBT, DAE etc. have separate funding schemes to help the entrepreneurs. Once a start-up flourishes, then one can bring it under his ownership. As biology is a diverse field, graduates of different disciplines must collaborate with each other to discuss their ideas. Remember, the company UBER started with a request of collaboration through Twitter; YouTube was started in a garage and Facebook was initially a graduate project. Zoology or Biotech graduates can collaborate with Medical graduates to discuss health-related issues and ideas, Botany graduates can collaborate with those of ecology and environmental sciences to explore the diversity of plants that may lead to a successful development of certain commercial products. In my view, it is not impossible to enter the zone of entrepreneurship after completion of academics. Only one needs to collaborate to thrive in the NER region.
Research Scholar
NIPER, Guwahati
