Biotech Breakthrough: IIT Guwahati’s New Path to Affordable Insulin

IIT Guwahati has secured two Indian patents for a pioneering insulin production system that could dramatically reduce costs and improve accessibility for millions of diabetes patients.

What’s the Innovation?

• Developed a novel bioprocess using Pseudomonas fluorescens, a safe and efficient bacterial system.
• Unlike traditional methods using E. coli, this system yields soluble insulin, simplifying production.
• Leverages Genetic, Metabolic, and Biochemical Engineering to optimize output and safety.

Key Advantages

• Lower production costs
• Higher yield of usable insulin.
• Potential to produce other therapeutic proteins and industrial enzymes using the same system.

Patent Details

Patent No.	Application No.	Date of Grant
568947	202431045821	22 July 2025
536416	202331058235	01 May 2024

Research Team

• Prof. Veeranki Venkata Dasu (Lead)
• Ansuman Sahoo (PMRF Scholar)
• Prabir Kumar Das
• Dr. MSRC Murthy
• Prof. Sanjukta Patra

With over 537 million adults affected by diabetes worldwide, and projections showing 1 in 8 adults may have diabetes by 2050, this innovation could reshape insulin accessibility and affordability.

HCLTech Partners with IIT Guwahati to Upskill Employees in AI

HCLTech, a leading global technology company, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati to offer employees enrolled in the company’s early-career development program—TechBee—a pathway to advanced education in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related technologies.

Under the agreement, eligible HCLTech employees will be offered a four-year online Bachelor of Science (Honors) degree in Data Science and AI. This initiative is designed to equip participants with the skills and knowledge necessary to excel in the rapidly evolving tech landscape, preparing them for future leadership roles within the company.

"HCLTech has long been at the forefront of creating alternative talent pipelines, empowering individuals to build successful careers in technology from diverse backgrounds. Our TechBee program provides high school graduates with a unique opportunity to kick-start their careers, and this collaboration with IIT Guwahati adds another valuable pathway for them to pursue their academic ambitions while gaining real-world industry experience," said Subbaraman B, Senior Vice President, HCLTech.

“We are excited to collaborate with HCLTech, a global leader in technology and innovation, to advance early-career education in critical fields like Data Science and AI. HCLTech’s proven expertise in driving digital transformation, combined with IIT Guwahati’s academic excellence, makes this online degree program a powerful platform. It has been designed to offer accessible, high-quality education that empowers students to thrive in the ever-evolving technology landscape,” said Prof. Devendra Jalihal, Director, IIT Guwahati.

Established in 1994, the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati has swiftly built world-class infrastructure and state-of-the-art facilities for advanced research. The institute offers a wide range of programs across various disciplines, fulfilling the aspirations of the Northeast region.

This partnership with IIT Guwahati reinforces HCLTech’s commitment to nurturing young talent and shaping the next generation of tech leaders. The HCLTech TechBee program offers students the flexibility to pursue higher education while gaining hands-on industry experience, creating a well-rounded, future-ready workforce.

IIT Guwahati Develops ML Framework LEAP that Speed Up the Design Process of Integrated Circuits

IIT Guwahati has developed an innovative Machine Learning (ML) framework called LEAP. This framework is designed to enhance the design process of Integrated Circuits (ICs), which are crucial components in the semiconductor industry.

Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools are inherently complex, and integrating a machine learning framework like LEAP required a deep understanding of both EDA processes and machine learning algorithms. For the IIT Guwahati researchers, balancing the trade-offs between runtime efficiency and performance improvements was a significant challenge. The researchers had to ensure that reducing the runtime of EDA tools did not compromise the performance of the integrated circuits.

Prof. Chandan Karfa, Associate Professor, and Dr. Sukanta Bhattacharjee, Assistant Professor from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Guwahati, along with their BTech students Chandrabhushan Reddy Chigarapally and Harshwardhan Nitin Bhakkad, have utilised machine learning to enhance efficiency in IC design.

Collaborating with Dr. Animesh Basak Chowdhury from New York University, USA, they developed the LEAP framework. LEAP significantly reduces the runtime of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools by 50%. This means that the design process becomes much faster and more efficient.

The framework also decreases the clock period by 2%, which improves the performance of the circuits without increasing the area required.

LEAP streamlines the technology mapping process within EDA by intelligently identifying and prioritizing the most promising configurations. This reduces the number of configurations the mapping tool must consider by over 50%.

This development is a significant advancement in the field of Electronic Design Automation, benefiting the $600 billion semiconductor industry by enhancing electronic device performance while reducing energy consumption.

IIT Guwahati BioNEST Hosted the 2nd Edition of Kickstart 2.0 Industry Conclave to Create a Unique Template in N.E.India

A key highlight of the conclave included Startup Pitch Battle with over 80 startups and a cumulative investment intent being upwards of Rs. 120 crores via the equity and debt routes

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati BioNEST successfully hosted the second edition of Kickstart 2.0 Industry conclave on 14th and 15th February 2023 to create a unique template in North East India to explore avenues for Market Creation, Technology Transfer, Product Commercialization, thereby helping the startups across India by promoting their Market Reach and Business Expansion.

BIRAC sponsored BioNEST at the IIT Guwahati Technology Innovation and Development Foundation of Research park and Free Flow Venture Builders hosted over 80 Start-ups across India, primarily from North East India who showcased their products to Investors, Healthcare Providers and Enablers.

The event was graced by the esteemed presence of Dr. Siddharth Singh, IAS, IHIDMS, Commissioner & Secy, Govt. of Assam, as the Chief Guest. Smt. Sherry Lalthnagzo, IES, Economic Advisor, NEC Shillong, and Shri Girish Krishnamurthy, CEO TATA MD, graced the event as the Guests of Honor.

During his inaugural address Dr. Siddharth Singh, IAS, IHIDMS, Commissioner & Secy, Govt. of Assam, emphasised on the need of technologies and innovations in the field of healthcare accessibility, organizing patient load at hospital OPDs and the products that can optimize efficiencies of hospital ICUs.

Speaking during the event, Guest of Honor, Smt. Sherry Lalthnagzo, IES, Economic Advisor, NEC Shillong expressed the huge potential NE has to offer in terms of biodiversity and human resource and stressed upon the need of building of strong startup ecosystem.

Shri Girish Krishnamurthy, CEO TATA MD, enthralled the audience during Plenary talk where he showcased TATA MD initiatives in point-of-care diagnostics and solving healthcare accessibility problems in Indian system.

Speaking during the event, Prof. Parameswar K. Iyer, Officiating Director, IIT Guwahati, outlined the institute’s Incubator network and explained the cutting-edge infrastructure that can be pivoted for product development and build the generation next startup ecosystem in NE.

Prof. Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, Head of Jyoti & Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sci. & Tech. and Principal Investigator for IITG BioNEST added that it is very encouraging to see huge participation by startups from North East and across India and encouraged them to collaborate with IITG and NE ecosystem.

The key attraction of the event was the startups pitch battles. The conclave hosted 20+ India’s top investors, both VCs and Angel Investors, including Hyderabad Angels, Mumbai Angels, GenVantage, Encubay Angel Network, Dextor Angel, FAAD, Realtime Angel Fund, WeFounder Circle. This was achieved through partnering with a boutique Venture Building Partner - FreeFlow Ventures, who were also responsible for cumulative investment intent management from the visiting delegation. It is notable that the number of unique intents for the startups were over 80 with a cumulative investment intent being upwards of 120+ crores via the equity and debt routes. FreeFlow were able to engage with a pool of 600+ Indian Startups and founders amongst whom, 30 startups pitched in front of 25 esteemed investors representing various investment sensibilities.

The Best performing and maximally soft committed models were recognized through the course of the two days were –

• Taare Zameen Par
• Biofly
• Paving+
• Hummsa Biotech
• Mobilabs
• Unirox
• Maskow
• HookoluPay

The models that pitched online and were amongst the highest number of intents were Anantadi and Padmaseetha.

Along with this, a parallel Doctors’ Conclave was also concluded as a part pf Kickstart2.0 involving 6 specialists professors and HOD at Guwahati Medical College Hospital, one from TATA MD & one from Apollo Hospitals Chennai. During the interaction with Health tech startups and researchers, the doctors spoke about the existing technology gap between what is required and what is available and identified some of the major areas which will define the progress of health sciences in the NE of India and India as a whole. 20 such areas were identified through vibrant discussion and interactions, these will now be further followed up by deep dive discussions in the interdisciplinary environment that has been created.

Dr. Muralidharan, Apollo Hospitals Chennai and Dr. Taslimarif Sayed, Director & CEO, who joined Online, CCAMP engaged the audience during their Plenary talks.

A delegate from Indian Army visited during the event and interacted with the startups who have product ideas and innovations which have a potential to be deployed in Armed Forces. The delegate interacted with 15 selected startups who are working in point-of-care healthcare and drone technology. There were engaging Panel Discussions on Business Planning and GTM Strategy, Brand Building and PR, Aspects and Strategies of Business Sustainability where stalwart panellists put into perspective the key attributes of entrepreneurship and how to strategize the journey of any innovation from MVP to market and build a successful brand and build customer trust. Also, the panellists had a session on Incubator sustainability & challenges, and Sustainable Grassroot Ecosystem where the discussion was focused on how to bridge the gap between grassroot entrepreneurship ecosystem and mainstream market and how can a successful revenue model for an Incubator can be built.

ABOUT IITG TIDF BioNEST

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati-Technology Innovation and Development Foundation (TIDF) BioNEST Bio-Incubation Centre, strategically located at the IIT Guwahati campus with a vision to foster innovative research and entrepreneurial activities in Healthcare and Industrial biotechnology related areas. BioNEST is supported by BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, New Delhi), Govt. of India with the focus to incubate a host of entrepreneurs to commercialize an array of healthcare products in the area of traditional and modern Biomaterials, Industrial Biotechnology and state-of-art frugal Diagnostics so as to establish a benchmark especially in NE.

Follow IITG Bionest on TWITTER/LINKEDIN/YOUTUBE/FACEBOOK/INSTAGRAM

ABOUT IIT GUWAHATI

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati established in 1994 has completed 25 years of glorious existence in 2019. At present, the Institute has eleven departments, seven inter-disciplinary academic centres and five schools covering all the major engineering, science, healthcare, management and humanities disciplines, offering BTech, BDes, MA, MDes, MTech, MSc, and PhD programmes. The institute offers a residential campus to 435 faculty members and more than 7,000 students at present.

IIT Guwahati has retained the 7th position among the best engineering institutions of the country and 8th position in ‘Overall’ Category in the ‘India Rankings 2022’ declared by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Union Ministry of Education.

IIT Guwahati is the only academic institution in India that occupied a place among the top 100 world universities – under 50 years of age – ranked by London-based Times Higher Education (THE) in 2014 and continues to maintain its superior position even today in various International Rankings. IIT Guwahati gained rank 37 globally in the ‘Research Citations per Faculty’ category and overall 384 rank in the QS World University Rankings 2023 released recently.

Among other frontier areas of research and innovation, IIT Guwahati is working towards augmenting critical science research initiatives in Genomics, Developmental Biology, Health Care and Bioinformatics and Flexible Electronics, among numerous other areas.

IIT Guwahati's Technical Board to Support GCSPL, A Startup Founded by Senior Citizens

Chalam C.S, Director GCSPL and Prof. Chivukula V. Sastri, Chairman, Tech Board-IIT Guwahati seen exchanging MoU. Also seen Anil Kumar, Pavanraj-pic 2

GCSPL, a startup founded by senior citizens enters MoU with Technical Board, IIT Guwahati

Technical Board IIT Guwahati to support GCSPL develop India’s first discovery platform for retired seniors and bridge the gap for the growing need for their services

85% of retired senior experts can be productive even after their retirement.

A Hyderabad-based Guide’S-ME Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd. (GCSPL), a startup founded by retired professionals enters a Memorandum of Understanding with the Technical Board, IIT Guwahati. The MoU was exchanged in a Press Conference held at T-Hub on Monday.

GCSPL launched SeniorExperts.in, a discovery platform for retired seniors. It has 16000 senior experts and 500 SMEs are already on board. Various Surveys have revealed that 85% of retirees can be productive even after retirement.

India has 158 million senior citizens. There are 60million MSMEs. The platform Senior Experts bridges the gap. Retired senior experts who have expertise look for engagement. On the other hand, SMEs need expert guidance but they can’t afford it. The retired experts' services can be put to use. With this MoU, IIT students who look for exposure will get that required exposure by working on the project. So the industry and academia gap that is prevailing can be reduced. It is a win-win project for all said Prof. Chivukula V. Sastri.

We provide a one point solution to the industry, said Prof. Sastri. We will deliver products with state-of-the-art technology. Cream of the Technical Board IIT-Guwahati from multi-disciplines will develop a futuristic and robust product. This is probably the first experiment where the student body of an educational institute is directly working with industry, giving a solution I am aware of, Dr Sastri added.

The MoU was signed and exchanged by Prof Chivukula V. Sastri on behalf of IIT Guwahati by its Chairman, Tech Board and Mr Chalam C. S., Mr Anil Kumar Siddu, Mr Pavanraj Nedunuri, Directors on behalf of GCSPL.

The MoU was signed for developing the state-of-the-art technological solutions and support to GCSPL for a robust discovery platform Senior Citizens by IIT Guwahati. The platform is eventually aimed at assisting in empowering Senior Citizens and SMBs of the nation. Initially, the agreement is for three years which will be extended subsequently with mutual consent informed by Mr Anil Kumar Siddu.

GCSPL is a Hyderabad-based startup founded by a few retired professionals. It is a start-up by the seniors, who upon retiring from active service have taken up, which is probably a record of sorts. Senior Experts is India’s First Discovery Platform for Retired Seniors, who have years of experience, expertise and wealth of knowledge, which is out to use for the betterment of the future generations and better tomorrow.

With the potential to become the world’s largest aggregator of Senior (Retired) Experts, with the first mover advantage in the commercial business segment with no direct competition in the nation, and with over 16,000 retired professionals currently available to assist the growth of the economy covering over 70 industries with a varied repertoire, it is a win-win venture both for senior experts as well as businesses to lead our nation to become globally competitive from grey collared demographic front as well.

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati is a public technical university, the sixth in India established by the Government of India.

Technical Board is a wing at IIT Guwahati for dreamers of innovation.

The promoters of the startup looked at increasing the ageing population which normally used to be a tiny percentage of 2 to 3, but, because of the increased longevity of the life, it has risen to 15 per cent embarked on the project. By the year 2030, according to UN projections, the share of the elderly in the population is likely to rise to 25%. By 2030, every one in four in the world will be elderly. They saw a huge opportunity.

At the same time, they also saw a problem being faced by Small and Medium enterprises. They were looking for the right kind of expertise at affordable honorariums. The founder of GCSPL saw a huge business opportunity and they wanted to bridge the gap.

Thus, born the Senior Experts, India's First Discovery Platform for Retired Seniors. It will be an AI-enabled platform which will connect Retired Seniors and Entrepreneurs. A Platform to Bridge the Void of Experience for the New Age Organisations with the Vast experience of Retired Professionals, disclosed Anil Kumar Siddu, one of the Co-Founders of the start-up who is a retired professional from a shop floor.

India may be one of the youngest countries in the world today, but in a few years hence, it will have a large population in the retirement age. This is a futurist product with a future full of promises, he adds.

Senior Experts, the Discovery Platform will Connect Retired Seniors who are willing to Work and Entrepreneurs who are looking for Experienced Manpower adds another Co-Founder Mr C.S Chalam, a retired professional from Banking Industry.

Retirement is not the end of the road. But, it is just a turn in the road, he adds.

Family friends for the last 50 years, Mr Anil Kumar Siddu & Mr Chalam CS, observed their classmates, colleagues and friends living their standstill lives in a highly fast-paced busy world. Such senior citizens carry with them prodigious experience and expertise and would love to share their knowledge with the younger generations towards building a better tomorrow. A lot of promising businesses have been emerging around us but most of them fail to hit the mark for want of suitable expertise and experience due to their limited knowledge base

Senior Experts is the one-stop-shop solution to satisfy the demand for a network of highly experienced professionals and a growing number of MSMEs across India. It enables senior citizens who've retired from their respective fields to continue contributing to the growth of new businesses that need valuable expertise

It will be a win-win platform both for the Elderly as well as entrepreneurs.

We must have retired from our respective professions but we are not tired. No one is called senior citizens in the west unless and until they reach 80 plus years.

For many, crossing 60 years doesn’t automatically guarantee retirement from work. Census 2011 data shows that for every five persons aged above 60 years, more than two are still working. This novel venture helps senior citizens to engage them constructively and entrepreneurs provide expertise at their affordability. It is the need of the hour project. It is a social enterprise, the promoters added.

26-year old IIT Guwahati Student Launches India’s 1st Ever ‘Privacy-First’ Email Provider Startup ‘LETTER’

• Most affordable email hosting services especially for startup community
• Made in India initiative for customised e-mail solutions 
• Global standards in security, usability and optimised email deliverability
• Letter secures data and makes the host unable to read any emails unless they explicitly have the user's password
• Letter adds an additional encryption layer over and above email encryption that not only secures emails but also the infrastructure from cyberattacks.

An IIT Guwahati student today announced the launch of an email provider startup called – 'Letter'.

Letter is a powerful email hosting provider packed with an array of advanced features, an intuitive user interface, impressive performance and global standard security which boasts on sharing strongest data privacy and encrypted storage for emails

 

Email communication in today's world is often treated as an afterthought even though online businesses have to depend on it the most. Major email providers not only mine user data but also use this data to display ads or sell to third parties. Some email providers do not allow you to import or export your email data, and some even lock you to their own apps. On the other hand, privacy-oriented email providers do not implement industry-standard email access protocols and also do not implement search functionality. 

"I have often suffered due to the lack of business email solutions that properly implements the basics such as email deliverability, contact sync, calendars, search, etc. and also respects user privacy and right to their data," shares Sunit Nandi, founder of startup Letter.

Devising a solution to these issues, Nandi self-hosted his own work emails for several years before finally launching Letter. "I was so frustrated with the state of email hosting that I self-hosted my own work emails for several years, and spent countless days improving the security & optimizing email deliverability. Finally, the product was completely finished and I decided to launch Letter," explains an excited Nandi who is also a serial entrepreneur and started when he was 18years. 

Currently pursuing his PhD from IIT Guwahati Nandi wants to offer 'Letter' as a Made-In-India well thought product offering business uncompromised data privacy.

Letter has created a strong market presence by offering highly affordable solutions with yearly plans starting for as low as INR1320. This gets better when it comes with 4GB storage, Bitwarden password manager and up to 4 custom/own domain mailboxes. Other plans have an offering of up to 50GB storage which too is on private cloud that doubles up to intense privacy and data security. Check out more details at www.letter.is.

Letter is a Mailcow based email provider, which is hosted in France and uses relays in Switzerland and Iceland. The aim of Letter.is is to create a secure email platform and protect user privacy which is the main concern of the Internet of today. The start-up provides email encryption by encypting the emails of the user on the disk with an AES-256 key which is encrypted with the user's password. This secures data and makes the host unable to read any emails unless they explicitly have the user's password.

Letter provides complete customer support in its packages unlike most business email solutions. This makes them unique with their fully managed solution that even includes assistance with adding DNS records. They believe in simplicity and generous offerings. The billing is not done on the number of email accounts or domains the customer has, but only on the disk space and number of outgoing emails on the plan of their choice. Letter does not compromise convenience over security. Therefore, it uses indexing that helps customers to find their emails through the search bar which many privacy-oriented providers still fail to offer. Letter adds an additional encryption layer over and above email encryption that not only secures emails but also the infrastructure from cyberattacks.

The bottom line is to combine simplicity with security!

Food-Tech Startup and D2C Brand, Anveshan, Raises 1.12 Crore Pre-Seed Funding from Titan Capital

• Aims to provide high-quality, natural and traditionally processed food products manufactured at source (rural areas)
• Focusing on source identification and traceability solution
• Funds will be used to expand business and create tech-enabled supply chain 

Foodtech start-up, Anveshan has raised Rs. 1.12 crore in the pre-seed funding round led by Titan Capital. With a fresh influx of capital, the company will focus on expanding its supply chain and operations across India. The start-up creates food micro-Entrepreneurs in villages across India that make these food products using traditional practices while ensuring quality control through traceability. This model ensures the best quality food product for the customers along with social and economic upliftment of the Indian farmers. 

With the vision to provide best quality and healthy food products, a significant pie of the investment will also be used for food research and the development of technical solutions and devices that can track the food quality.

Co-founded in late 2019, by three young and energetic IIT Guwahati graduates, Aayushi Khandelwal, Akhil Kansal and Kuldeep Parewa, Anveshan plans to tap the growing market for local and Indian origin foods by providing high-quality natural and eco-friendly products. Anveshan is an attempt to solve the problem of lack of transparency and quality control in food products to ensure best products for the consumers. The foodtech company also wants to change how food is perceived today by making people aware of the manufacturing process and providing them super nutritious and tasty food products.

Talking about the investment and the support from the Titan Capital, Aayushi Khandelwal, Co-founder, Anveshan said, “We are elated to receive this initial support and investors’ belief in our vision to replace all the unhealthy ingredients in the kitchen that have long-term health ailments with natural and quality food products. We want our customers to take pride while buying Anveshan food products as not only are they contributing to their own health but also impacting the lives of Indian farmers.”

“Also, with a trend towards healthier lifestyle, the market’s potential in India itself is huge and we envision expanding globally over time.” she further added.

Pleased to share, Akhil Kansal, Co-founder, Anveshan, said, “Due to misleading advertisements and false marketing of food products, consumers have lost the feeling of trust in food brands. Customers are being deceived by such campaigns and they blindly trust what is written on the label. We want to be that brand that provides purest and most natural kind of food with a proof of quality through our traceability solution."

Kuldeep Parewa, Co-founder, Anveshan, stated, "Inspite of putting in the greatest effort in the food-supply chain, our farmers gets the least monetary gains out of it. Our unique model of creating decentralised food-processing units, enables us to empower Indian farmers and the village youth. We aim to create thousands of jobs in villages through Anveshan".

Bipin Shah, partner at Titan Capital said, "We are able to see Anveshan solving quality and trust issue in food products. Even customers can trace the origin of products like A2 ghee, Spices, Edible oil. Especially a big need in urban busy population who want to be relaxed about quality of raw material being used in kitchen to remain super healthy and immune in this new world"

IIT-Guwahati Students Develop Mobile App for Seamless, Contactless Air Travel

A group of IIT-Guwahati students has developed a mobile application for seamless and contactless air travel not only during the current pandemic but also during non-crisis situations.

The aim of the mobile app Flyzy, developed as per International Air Transport Association (IATA) guidelines, is to provide contactless boarding, keeping in mind the easier baggage drop, manageable parking, better shopping experience and providing necessary updates during the whole journey, IIT-Guwahati said in a release.

Developed by a group of three B Tech students -- Deepak Meena, Hansraj Patel and Arjit Singh -- under a startup, the app also has a smart UI (user interface) assistant that helps elderly people to use it easily. Other features of the application include real-time flight notifications, universal web check-in portal, check-in baggage status and map of the airport.



According to the release, the hybrid software will support face-biometric recognition in future, without even changing the complete software system of the airport and is secured as the app is hosted on the cloud.

Proper IATA and DGCA guidelines were followed in the development of the app, it said.

The mission of the startup, which has been recognised by the Startup India, is to build Flyzy as India's finest aviation IT technology company for providing a stress-free and safe journey to flyers, the release said.

The passengers can shop from the airport using the app and can make payment as well, besides they can either opt for the takeaway or gate delivery option. Flyzy also supports multi-currency payments.

For food ordering purposes, the app dynamically suggests the passenger the best option he/she could choose, based on the flight status. For instance, if the flight departs in one hour, the app will suggest to the passenger the food items that could be prepared within the available time, as per the release.

The idea is not only relevant during the present pandemic situation but also during the non-crisis time, the release said, adding the main idea behind the application is to provide a seamless journey to passengers as they move through the airport, especially to the first-time flyers.

The application will guide them thoroughly and provide them with an easy understanding and implementation of several airport functions, it said.

The founders believe that the application will help the aviation industry save money as the process will become automated, faster and easier.

The company provides an end-to-end service at a low infrastructure cost. The team is already in the process of talking to the authorities for implementing the application at some airports, IIT-Guwahati said.

Maruti Suzuki, IIT Guwahati, AOTS Japan join hands for promotion of tech education

Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday said it has collaborated with IIT Guwahati (IITG), Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Partnerships (AOTS), Japan and Suzuki Motor Corporation for promotion of technical education and training.

The institutional collaboration will facilitate promotion of education and training covering engineering courses and internship programmes in both India and Japan, the company said in a statement.

It will also promote research for next generation technologies for benefit of both the countries, it added.

An MoU was exchanged among the four parties at IIT Guwahati in the presence of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to India Satoshi Suzuki.

Commenting on the collaboration, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Managing Director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa said,"This institutional collaboration will help us prepare students wider technical roles. Internship exposures at global and local levels will make students ready for global and local roles."

It is a fine example of academia, industry and students coming together to create new benchmarks in technical education, he added.

"I see this collaboration taking technical education to the next level," Ayukawa said.

Under the collaboration, an engineering course, primarily related to automobiles, will be conducted by Suzuki Motor Corporation and MSI by providing training to students through lectures.

As part of the curriculum Japanese language course will be conducted by AOTS. This course will be provided to students of IITG. AOTS, SMC and MSIL will arrange for faculty to conduct these at IITG, the statement said.

Eligible students will be provided an opportunity of being placed for an internship at SMC's facility in Japan as well as at MSIL in India. This programme will help students gain both local and global exposure, it added.

These initiatives are authorised by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, as Japanese endowed course.

Sharing his thoughts on the partnership, Suzuki said, "I hope the synergy among these partners will help create future engineers to lead India's manufacturing sector and to build new bridges of friendship between India and Japan." PTI RKL

Assam's Numaligarh Refinery Ties with IIT-Guwahati for Startup Incubation

Startup revolution in north east India seems to have begun and Assam is likely to lead the torch of "Start-up India Stand-up India" initiative once set by PM Modi in 2016.

Assam-based Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) has signed a MoU with IIT Guwahati (IIT-G) for incubation of Startups under its Startup funding initiative ‘iDEATION’.

https://twitter.com/NRL_MoPNG/status/1099254641705897984

With this partnership, NRL will facilitate incubation facility and mentoring to the Startups sponsored and selected by NRL through iDEATION at the established Technology Incubation Centre (TIC) of IIT-Guwahati.

Notably, it was in 2016 when the IIT-G had decided to throw open its state-of-the-art incubation centre to students from other educational institutions in the region.

The development comes within a month after Assam's Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had inaugurated a state-owned incubator initiative called 'Assam Startup The Nest' in Guwahati, which will facilitate growth of at least 1,000 startups over the next five years.

Related - How A Guwahati Startup Is Creating Jobs In Secluded North-East India

iDEATION was launched by NRL in July 2017 for nurturing and boosting a startup ecosystem in the North East and had also launched an initial fund of Rs 10 Crore as a grant for startup ventures in the region.

The first edition of the initiative saw funding to the tune of Rs. 1.29 crore being allotted to four selected startup projects as seed funding and scale-up funding.

The 2nd edition launched in February 2018, too, garnered a huge response from the intrepid entrepreneurs of the northeast.

Numaligarh Refinery is located at Morangi, Golaghat district, Assam in India is a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum, Oil India and Government of Assam.

Source - NorthEast Now

 

IIT-Guwahati Opens Its Startup Incubation Centre For Other Institutes In North-East Region

To encourage startups in the India's northeast region, IIT Guwahati (IIT-G) has decided to throw open its state-of-the-art incubation centre to students from other educational institutions in the region.

With this, the ace tech institute in northeast region wants to encourage those who do not have the infrastructure to pursue innovative research and transform innovative ideas into real projects.

To select deserving candidates, the IITG-Technology Incubation Centre (IITG-TUC) will hold a contest called the 'IITG-TIC Innovation Competition'. The competition is open to all students who have a promising idea, and are students of the educational institutions of North Eastern region of India .

For the competition, IIT-G has already started receiving entries for the contest where students will be able to showcase their ideas in the field of agriculture, women's empowerment and safety, handicraft, health, food processing and packaging, non-conventional energy, tourism and cottage industry.

Winners of the competition will get the opportunity to 'incubate' their ideas, develop and commercialize them. So far, IIT-Guwahati's incubation centre has incubated only 7 companies out of it, as per its official website.

IIT-G spokesperson Labanu Konwar said the ultimate goal is to encourage entrepreneurship in the northeast by helping students with technology and financial assistance. Notably IITG-TIC also provides soft loan to its incubatee startups which is upto 80% of the project cost.