Karnal NDRI to help of start-ups 24x7

Parveen Arora

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The business incubation centre, known as the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Dairying (SINED), in the Business Planning Development (BPD) unit at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) in Karnal district is proving to be of vital help to start-ups. So far, it has provided training in dairy processing and farming to around 2,000 entrepreneurs across the world, and most of them are getting good returns.

SINED, which was initially funded by the Department of Science and Technology, was established on February 5, 2009. It provides support for technology-based entrepreneurship in dairy, besides extending knowledge, skill and resources to establish entrepreneurial ventures, says Dr AK Singh, Principal Scientist, Dairy Technology Division, NDRI, and in-charge of the BPD unit.

He says that more than 150 start-ups are running their ventures successfully in the country and several of them exhibited their products at the NDRI global scientific alumni meet in Karnal recently.

Vivek Kumar Kaushik, CEO, JV Foodworks Pvt. Ltd, and Babbar Singh, CEO and co-founder of Delmos Research Pvt. Ltd, are among those who have successfully launched start-ups after getting training at the centre. They are now earning good returns in their businesses. Kaushik has developed low-cost nutritional bars, muffins and other bakery products, while Babbar Singh has developed a strip-based kit for rapid detection of milk adulteration. Now, he is providing his product to 18 companies in the country, says AK Singh. 

“Our main motive is to encourage young entrepreneurs to establish their businesses, and extend all kinds of support to them at the centre. Any person willing to establish a dairy business can come to us for training,” he adds. 

Kaushik, who is from Gurugram, got six-month incubation training in product development in 2017. Before undergoing training, he had developed initial prototype products such as energy bars and muffins, but there were several challenges related to packaging, shelf-life and selection of key ingredients.

“After undergoing training, I managed to overcome challenges and it helped me in better packaging, having longer shelf-life of products and finalising the key ingredients. Our main aim was to approach the issue of childhood hunger, malnutrition, child nutrition and women health in an innovative, sustainable and skilful way. So, we came up with a wide range of health and nutritional products, which are developed with a deep understanding of children’s taste preferences and that too in a cost-effective way,” says Kaushik. 

“My business has improved a lot and I have collected revenue of Rs 1 crore in the current financial year compared to Rs 24 lakh last year before undergoing training,” he adds. 

Babbar Singh, a student of the NDRI, along with Manoj Kumar got Delmos Research Pvt. Ltd registered in February 2017. They underwent incubation training in May 2017. They did not know much about the start-up ecosystem before they came in touch with the NDRI. They are now proud founders of one of the well-known agri-tech start-ups.

“The NDRI provided us incubation training and every possible support to start a business. It helped us to launch our business initiative fast and smooth by mentoring us throughout our journey,” he says.

Babbar Singh says that they have received funds from the IIT, Kanpur, to scale up their business. “We have developed an easy to use, rapid and innovative strip test for detection of adulteration in milk. Just dip the strip in milk and observe the colour change. It is so easy to use that even a housewife can use it at home,” he adds.

Babbar Singh had started his business with one product and now he has five products that are successfully selling in the market. “We have also developed several products, which will be launched in the due course. We have several clients in the country such as Amul, Verka, Vita, Sudha Dairy, Bani, Maahi, Lactalis, Heritage Foods, Paras Dairy, Saras Dairy, Sanchi, and Heinz India,” he says.

“We have generated revenue of Rs 1 crore so far. We are also planning to launch retail products which will help common people to test milk at their houses,” he adds.

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