Biocon founder and Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has announced ₹5 crore to Ignite Life Science Foundation, to trigger funding for research at Indian scientific institutions.

Mazumdar Shaw’s contribution will be part of the initial funding pool for the research projects on ‘Pandemic Preparedness’. These projects support national efforts in preparing for and responding to future pandemics. A key goal will be to build competencies that will enable India to mount a quick and effective response to future pandemics, said an Ignite Life Science Foundation release.

Commenting on her donation, Mazumdar Shaw said, “I have always committed a large part of my philanthropy to backing biomedical research. I am pleased to support Ignite Life Science Foundation in its endeavour to catalyse promising work by Indian researchers that will enable their contributions to become an integral part of the global ecosystem of innovative and advanced healthcare solutions.”

Nobel Laureate Dr Venki Ramakrishnan (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK) too reacted to the announcement by saying, “No country can prosper in the 21st century without being a technologically advanced, knowledge-based society. This requires substantial investment in science and innovation, an area in which India lags not only the West but also Asian countries like China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Most advanced countries have significant private investment in science, which is lacking in India. The Ignite Life Science Foundation thus has a crucial role to play in catalysing change, and the substantial initial donation by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw will hopefully set an example for other donors.”

Swami Subramaniam, CEO, Ignite Life Science, said, “I welcome Mazumdar Shaw’s contribution and, on behalf of the Board at Ignite, I wish to express our profound gratitude for her generosity towards this cause. Her contribution will help Ignite get started in a meaningful way towards generating proof of principle for our long-term mission, which is to help create and sustain a robust environment that promotes world-class scientific research and productivity here in India. We hope our work will bring conversations about science into the mainstream and help grow philanthropic funding for scientific research to solve challenging health problems facing the country.”

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