It is a great pleasure to inform all our esteemed members that ABLE has completed 19 years of service to the Biotech community and we are all gearing up to celebrate the 20th Anniversary in March 2023. In a small way, the celebrations of ABLE@20 will begin on 16th November 2022 at 3.30 pm at Hotel Shangri La, Bangalore. More celebrations are planned in Pune, Hyderabad, Bhubaneshwar and the National Capital Region during Jan – March 2023.

While we will trace the journey of 19+ years of ABLE, the occasion on 16th November in Bangalore is mainly to plan for the next 20+ years and in a crisp 90-minute session, together will plan for the future. Please mark the date and time in your calendar and more details will follow in the next few days. I would like to extend my invitation to all of you to participate and very much looking forward to having you all with us on this happy occasion.

ABLE has now spread its wings to the Eastern India. On October 21, at a simple ceremony in the presence of biotech students and industry, we have launched the Eastern and North-eastern Regional Chapter of the Association at KIIT University, Bhubaneshwar. This regional Chapter will seek to bring together the entire biotech ecosystem in the eastern and North-eastern parts of our country, link to their counterparts in other regions and ensure a smooth exchange of expertise and ideas and catalyse the growth of the biotech landscape.

It has been a hectic two months for Team ABLE we criss-crossed the country to conduct the four zonal rounds of the country’s most popular public-speaking contest, the ‘voice for BT’ for students. This is the 10th edition of the event, thanks to our sponsor Novozymes for their continued support. We very much appreciate our knowledge partner institutions, Amity University (NOIDA, UP), DY Patil University (Mumbai), KIIT University (Bhubaneshwar) and Sastra University (Thanjavur, TN). Nearly 100 highly talented speakers from all the four regions enthralled the audience, put forward some innovative ideas to use biotech to tackle critical challenges facing the country. Now the Grand National Finale will take place in VIT University, Vellore in Tamil Nadu on November 2. Top 8 students’ speakers will compete for the No 1 and No.2 all India biotech speaker prizes. I would request the member companies to come forward and generously contribute to encourage biotech talent in the future editions of the competition.

G S Krishnan

Hon. President, ABLE