Department of Science and Technology (DST) Secretary Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India on Wednesday said that if a company partners with a startup, then the DST will also partner with it and extend a matching grant to help it scale up.

Speaking at the 'Awards Ceremony - India Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP) 2.0',Prof. Sharma said that the department may take the decision on providing a matching grant to the successful startup in a month or two.

"If industry is partnering with a startup putting an x amount of money, depending on the plans and other things, then DST will also partner and probably would put a matching amount of money in that startup," he said, adding the challenge for startups is to scale up and transition into stable businesses.

The government is coming up with startup centres worth Rs 150 crore each to help the startups access the resources, especially hardware, he said. Three centres will be launched this year, followed by 3-4 centres per year, thus creating a total of 20 such centres, he added.

The India Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP) 2.0, a tripartite initiative of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, Lockheed Martin and Tata Trusts today named the winners of the 2019 edition of the annual IIGP 2.0.

The winners were chosen from over 2,400 applicants who presented innovations that aim to bring large scale social impact and industrial transformation in India.

16 start-ups from the annual Open Innovation Challenge and 20 university teams from the University Challenge each received grants of INR 25 Lakh and INR 10 Lakh respectively to enable the evolution and maturation of their technology solutions proposals.

Sharma further urged FICCI to scale up the IIGP by doubling the size of the programme, which awarded 20 University Challenge winners and 16 Open Innovation Challenge winners this year. 

The innovations identified for award this year were evaluated by a panel of jurors which include IIGP 2.0 stakeholders and implementation partners as well as external experts from the innovation, science, technology and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Implementation partners include the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM Ahmedabad and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

The applicants, which came from across the nation as well as a range of educational institutions, offered a breadth and variety of excellent innovations to evaluate. They also join a cohort of over 7000 applicants from the past three years of IIGP 2.0 in submitting innovations for consideration by the IIGP 2.0 Panel of Jurors.

Phil Shaw, Chief Executive of Lockheed Martin in India said, "The talent pool and potential for positive change through technology in India, from India, for India and the world, is immense as we witnessed this year during the judging process."

Manoj Kumar, Head, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Tata Trusts & CEO, Social Alpha said, "Through the India Innovation Growth Programme, we continue to build on Tata Trusts' legacy of promoting science and technology innovations in India to create a positive impact on society."

The purpose of IIGP 2.0 is to encourage, identify, support and incubate the technology solutions devised by ingenious local start-ups and university teams that seek to solve complex challenges.