NMDC, IIT-Hyderabad to back deep tech startups

Hyderabad: NMDC Limited, in association with IIT Hyderabad, launched an Incubation and Fellowship Programme on Wednesday. This initiative titled, NICE Programme (NMDC Innovation and Incubation Centre), is a joint programme between NMDC Ltd and i-TIC Foundation, a startup support system at IIT, aims to support deep-tech startups by providing them incubation and fellowship. Its objective is to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation and to support the Startup India movement.

NICE initiative is a five-year joint programme that would support 15 fellows and 15 startups by providing them financial aid, mentoring, co-working space, infrastructural benefits, and many more. With the total programme budget of Rs 10 crore funded by NMDC, NICE aims to support five startups every year with the financial aid of up to Rs 25 lakh to convert their proof of concept into a scalable business. The programme would also support five fellows every year with the monthly stipend of Rs 80,000 for 12 months to support their sustenance and prototype development.

The programme was launched by Sumit Deb, the NMDC CMD, in the presence of Prof B S Murty, IIT Director, at a virtual event. It was attended by NMDC directors P K Satpathy (Production), Amitava Mukherjee (Finance), Alok Kumar Mehta (Commercial), Prof Surya Kumar S, faculty In-charge of the foundation, incubated startups, students, faculties and team members of the organisations.

At the launch, Deb said NMDC always supported social causes which have potential impact on human lives.

The NICE initiative would be a go-to place for the young entrepreneurs to passionately pursue their entrepreneurship journey and create wealth for the benefit of society. "I invite young and enthusiastic entrepreneurs to take advantage of the initiative to pursue their dream of becoming a successful entrepreneur."

Prof Murty said the vision of IIT Hyderabad was to be the cradle for inventions and innovations. "This joint programme is one important step taken towards the vision of IIT-H and the commitment to supporting entrepreneurship and innovations.

The programme would also act as a template for industry-academia collaboration to enrich the Startup India initiatives."

The event included the website launch by Deb, interaction with startups, type of support and information regarding the fellowship programme. Call for applications for the fellowship programme will start this month and can be applied through NICE website (www.niceprogram.in).