National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) will establish 10 outreach centres in the next one year to engage with start-up eco-system in India.
These centres will be set up in a phased manner across ten locations. In the first phase, centres will be established in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Lucknow, Kolkata and Guwahati.
Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh and Raipur will be covered in phase two. NRDC will accomplish this through the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in these cities.
H Purushotham, Chairman and Managing Director, NRDC, said, “We are looking for franchise who can scout and engage with entrepreneurs for using our technologies.”
With these new initiatives, NRDC wants to improve the monetisation of their technologies and looking at entrepreneurs for achieving this.“Branding needs a lot of money that we do not have,” Purushotham said.
Shifting focus
The organisation handles technology transfer for over 1,000 research institutions in the country. It has licensed close to 5000 technologies so far across different sectors such as healthcare, food, energy, water and sanitation. It has earned ₹70 crore through licensing and royalty fees in the last four years.
NRDC shifted its focus on start-ups after the launch of Start-up India initiative by the government. “Our approach to start-ups became more aggressive after the government implemented Start-up India policy,” Purushotham said.
An incubation centre was established in NRDC campus, New Delhi. “We have shortlisted 30 start-ups, eight physical start-ups and the rest on virtual mode that can be housed in the incubation centre,” he added. They will be provided technology support, mentoring, office space and seed funding of ₹10 lakh.
The organisation had invested in three start-ups in the last five years and is planning to invest in three more this year with the focus on early stage start-ups. Purushotham said, “There is a special focus to foster start-up ecosystem in the North-East. The organisation already has partnership with Guwahati Biotech Park through which it plans to nurture local entrepreneurship.”
NRDC has also partnered with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to promote student start-ups in universities.