Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Credit: PTI
New Delhi: Over a hundred innovators will be trained and supported by the Centre over a three-month period at institutes of excellence, before being sent to France for funding assistance. The initiative, led by the Ministry of Education, will be hosted by IIT Bombay.
Ministry officials said the program, named Bharat Innovates, aims to nurture innovators by providing weeks of training across key sectors at 13 institutions of excellence, including IIT Kanpur and IIT Bombay. With an allocated budget of Rs 60 crore, the ministry plans to take these innovators to France, where angel investors and venture capitalists will be invited to invest in their projects.
The ministry has also reached out to labs across the country, such as CDAC and IIT Madras, to spread the word and encourage applications. Officials said that 550 applications have already been received. “Anyone with an innovative idea can apply; they need not necessarily be a student,” a senior official said. Innovations, however, must be at Level 4 (proof of concept stage) or higher.
The final date for applications is October 15, with selections scheduled for November. In total, 110–120 candidates will be selected. Training will be provided by institutes in domains where they excel. “For instance, for sustainability-focused innovations, training will be conducted at IIT Kanpur, and for AI innovations at IIT Madras,” the official added.
Only 100 of these innovators will be sent to France in June.
The ministry has a similar ongoing program for startup incubation called Inventive, also carried out by the IITs. However, the programs will remain separate. “In the last IIT Council meeting, a merger was discussed, but the IITs feel that the ongoing program has its own brand recall value,” the official said.