At 23, this young innovator, Rahul Chatterjee, has scores of awards and recognitions in his kitty. A student of MSc Biotechnology at School of Biotechnology, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) University, Bhubaneswar, Rahul’s designs and innovations have been appreciated at national and international levels.

Rahul was selected as one of the top 20 innovators in India at Best Able India, a competition held in Bangalore in 2012. He also represented his university at the ‘Best Entrepreneurship Workshop in 2013. The event was organised by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India for developing ‘Chitosan Nano Particle Based Polyherbal Wound Healing Spray’.  This is a natural spray that helps healing of diabetic wounds, burn wounds, electrocution wounds and normal injuries in a short period of time and is also reasonably priced.

He won the third prize at InnovationExpo organised by the National Research Development Corporation, Ministry of Science and Technology, for developing the waste management and energy generation strategy, ‘Waste oil to Biodiesel’.

“I had decided to take up biotechnology as a career when I was in school itself. I always wanted to apply biology for applicative purposes, specifically targeting the environmental sector,” he says. He presented a paper at the 12th Japan-China-Korea Joint Symposium on Enzyme Engineering held at Kanazawa, Japan in 2012. The Development Commission, MSME (Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), Government of India, funded some projects which Rahul worked on. He has also received innovation fund support from KIIT-Technology Business Incubator. Rahul is currently laying the foundations for establishing a firm named Indian Food and Beverage Company, at Bhubaneswar. This is his first entrepreneurial venture aimed towards providing nutrition to the masses and to make eating healthier and tastier in India. The company would focus on creating innovative packaging systems for food products and beverages, to deliver quality food with higher nutritional value to the consumers. Rahul is also part of the project Indian Bio-Energy Company, which aims at producing clean and green biofuels (solid/liquid) using biotechnology at affordable costs. ‘Need rather than greed’ would be the agenda of this firm, catering to the demand for clean energy.

He believes that northeast has ample talent and a lot of scope to develop. Rahul intends on investing his knowledge, innovation and money in contributing to the development of the region as well as the country at large.

“My parents, who have taught me the art of ethical living and mentors who guided me to enrich the skills I have acquired today, have been my source of inspiration,” says Rahul.