Rural Business Incubation Centre (RBIC) at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, supported by NABARD, hosted a one-day hands-on workshop on ‘Innovation to Product Commercialisation’, aimed at transforming research ideas into commercially viable ventures in the agriculture and allied sectors.
The workshop was conducted by national deep-tech expert Dr Kaushik Choudhury, CEO, AIC IPR Plasmatech Innovation Foundation (Department of Atomic Energy, GoI), Ahmedabad. Dr Choudhury shared a practical roadmap for innovators, drawing on his vast experience in supporting startups and co-founding companies that successfully commercialised high-impact medical and agricultural technologies.
The session focused on bridging the critical gap between laboratory discovery and market application, providing participants with the mindset and tools needed for scaling up their products. About 100 scholars, students, faculty members, innovators and startup founders participated in the daylong workshop.
The workshop was inaugurated by Director Education, SKUAST-K, Prof Mohd Altaf Bhat, who was the chief guest at the occasion.
Prof Bhat highlighted the University’s commitment, driven by the vision of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Nazir Ahmad Ganai, who established Innovation and Entrepreneurship as the Fourth Mandate of the institution. He emphasised SKUAST-K is equipped with 21 state-of-the-art labs and vast intellectual capital to turn the valley into a startup hub.
Assistant General Manager, NABARD, Kanav Sharma, said that RBIC at SKUAST-K shall prove a game changer in empowering rural community through entrepreneurship and innovation for employment generation and economic development.
Head, IBPR, SKUAST-K Prof Farhet Shaeen, in his concluding remarks, said that RBIC must reach out to young talent to look for innovative ideas that have high potential of real world problem solving.
Dr Jameel Ahmad Khan, CEO, RBIC, introduced the centre as the institutional mechanism to provide end-to-end support through its five verticals – incubation, mentorship, capacity building, funding – to agripreneurs and rural startups in the region.
A select number of startups that displayed their products will receive an opportunity to showcase their products and ideas at the People’s Festival of Innovations 2025 in New Delhi from November 17-20, 2025.
Recently established Rural Business Incubation Centre hosted at SKUAST-K, funded and supported by National Agriculture and Rural Development Bank (NABARD), aims to strengthen the innovation and startup ecosystem in J&K and Ladakh through dedicated mentorship, incubation facilities, funding and other required facilitate startups and ventures.
