Introduction to Bioentrepreneurship

Introduction

Entrepreneurs are euphoric people with persistence even in the presence of any controversy. Effective utilization of resources, increase in per capita income, employment, conservation of resources, improved quality of life & infrastructure, promotion of technology and export are some of the key roles played by an entrepreneur. Burhanuddin et al., in 2013 described an entrepreneur as an aggressive catalyst which can hasten the economic growth. They are the instigators of jobs, wealth through hard work and innovation (Bygrave & Zacharakis, 2010). Salgado-Banda (2007) researched on 22 countries on the impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth and found positive relationship between economic growth and innovation, also stated that growth of economy will be higher with the increase in the number of entrepreneurs. Biotechnology being the fastest growing and knowledge-based sector in the world has enormous potential where direct or indirect use of living organisms or parts of organisms in their natural or modified forms can be utilized in an innovative manner for industrial production. It is the application of all sciences and engineering to achieve an aim by modifying course when required, to undertake the never been done venture by taking risks, as both entrepreneurs and science are the acts of trial and error. Steve Jobs once said that just like the digital one, 21^st century will be at the intersection of biology and technology which will be marked by the beginning of a new era. So, the integration of science (bio) and entrepreneurship is defined as bioentrepreneurship, wherein a business can be established by using biological entities or any idea, related to sciences to earn the profit. It can be voiced by several different names such as bioscience enterprise, biotechnology enterprise, life science entrepreneurship, BioE or simply as science entrepreneurship. Therefore, bioentrepreneurship encloses an understanding of an idea, invents something, brings about the sum of all activities to create an environment and infrastructure for well-trained professionals to build research-based projects and their commercialization. Bioentrepreneurship is manifested as the key driver of the new bioeconomy (Christopher & Kaur 2011). For a person to be a bioentrepreneur, few skills are prerequisite like positive energy, leadership qualities, appropriate track record, technical knowledge of the field, articulating and managerial skills (Walton, 1998).