IIT-Kanpur’s SIIC to sign MoU with housing ministry

Kanpur: The technology business incubator of IIT Kanpur, Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC), has announced signing an MoU with the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) to become a partner under the ‘Startup Gateway Free Cities Program.
Under this program, MoHUA will act as a monitoring agency to support 20 startups at the first phase, excluding the top 10 startups from 30 finalists under the ‘Swachhata Startup Challenge’, by providing funding support to add to evolving innovation ecosystem globally in domain of waste-to-wealth.
SIIC IIT-Kanpur is an implementation partner for managing the program under the initiative to support 20 selected innovations/startups by offering mentorship, administrative and handholding support for one year. In addition, 55 startups will be identified during the program implementation and will be provided the adequate support required for their growth.
The vision of this collaboration between MoHUA and SIIC, IIT Kanpur is to support 75 startups working at the nexus of technology and social innovation to solve India’s waste management challenges by improving waste management efficiency, increasing social impact, and improving transparency of the waste value chain.
The ‘Startup gateway for garbage free cities’ portal will remain open across the year. In the initiative’s first cohort, 20 startups will get financial support. The second phase of this initiative will begin on the portal, wherein any potential startup can simultaneously apply under the relevant incubation mode.
Prof. Ankush Sharma, professor-in-charge, Innovation and Incubation IIT Kanpur, said “We are pleased to partner with the MoHUA for this prestigious program. These 20 startups will create impactful businesses through this partnership by creating indigenous technologies in the waste to wealth domain.”
Dr. Nikhil Agarwal, CEO, FIRST & AIIDE-CoE, said, “This program will add to vibrant incubation ecosystem at SIIC by providing resources to startups for technological solutions for waste management through validation and deployment of available technologies for the transformation of waste to wealth.”