State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) today said it has set up a Rs 100-crore start-up fund to nurture new ideas related to the sector.

“The initiative, christened ‘ONGC Start-up’, is in line with the Centre’s ‘Start-up India’ initiative,” the company said in a statement.

As part of this initiative, ONGC will provide the entire support chain for start-ups, including seed capital, hand-holding, mentoring market linkage and follow-ups.

“The aim of ‘ONGC Start-up’ is to increase the contribution of fresh implementable ideas in the oil and gas sector. ONGC is setting up a dedicated website to take this initiative forward,” it said.

ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Dinesh K Sarraf said this initiative will promote entrepreneurship among young Indians by creating an ecosystem that is conducive for the growth of start-ups in the oil and gas sector, which has a huge potential for technology-enabled ideas.

The oil and gas sector, he said, is contributing enormously to the growth of the economy. Currently, the sector faces a number of critical challenges and new ideas are required to mitigate those challenges.

To encourage its own employees to innovate, ONGC also awarded three young officers — Rajendra Bhambhu, Deepak Naik and Prajesh Chopra — for their innovative ideas.

Bhambhu and Naik developed an innovative safety device for rigs that facilitates setting up of an emergency brake to augment the safety mechanism on drilling rigs.

Chopra innovated a unique Dual SIM Cellular Router System that provides data connectivity at work-over rigs. This system curtails the hassle of frequent dismantling and re-installation during rig transportation, thus, saving time and money.

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