The Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC), Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) has partnered with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), to support sustainability-focused startups through the Startup Gateway for Garbage Free Cities 2.0 program. As the implementation agency for the program, SIIC IITK has invited startups from across India to apply for the next cohort of innovators.

The selected startups will receive significant benefits such as funding support of Rs 20 lakh, a one-year incubation program, business acceleration and additional funding, technical and business mentoring from subject-specific experts, access to state-of-the-art infrastructure and advanced R&D facilities, and facilitated investor connections. The participating startups will establish direct links with corporations and urban local bodies (ULBs), enabling them to deploy innovative solutions in the field.

Discussing the initiative, Prof S Ganesh, Officiating Director, IIT Kanpur said, "With increasing population and urbanization, waste management has emerged as one of the increasingly difficult challenges of our times. At IIT Kanpur we have a strong innovation and incubation ecosystem that has been contributing to provide technical solutions to a variety of societal challenges by supporting startups. I am confident that our collaboration with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) for the Startup Gateway for Garbage Free Cities 2.0 program will be a huge success. We invite large number of startups to come forward with their novel ideas and participate".

Prof. Ankush Sharma, Head SIIC, “SIIC, IIT Kanpur has always been at the forefront of promoting and nurturing next-generation technological response to global challenges. The collaboration with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) for the Startup Gateway for Garbage Free Cities 2.0 program is part of our commitment to positively impacting society and the planet.” 

The initiative is part of the program’s goal to expedite the Swachh Bharat Mission by offering crucial support to businesses in various thematic areas, including zero dump, reduce, reuse and recycle, plastic waste management, waste segregation, innovative waste cleaning, real-time waste monitoring and social innovation for waste management.

For more information and to apply, refer to https://linktr.ee/siiciitkanpur