Assam CM calls for stronger startup-academia-industry collaboration to drive innovation

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on September 10 called for stronger collaboration between startups, academic institutions and industry to build an innovation ecosystem capable of creating solutions for Assam and the global market.

Speaking at the MC² + Ignite outreach programme, organised by the Technology Incubation Centre of IIT Guwahati, Sarma said greater collaboration was essential to drive economic growth and create new opportunities in entrepreneurship and technology-led innovation in the Northeast.

"A stronger and more collaborative innovation ecosystem in the Northeast is required to drive economic growth and create new opportunities for entrepreneurship and technology-led innovation," he said.

The programme, described as India's first PSU-backed energy innovation platform, brought together startups, students, entrepreneurs, policymakers, industry leaders and academic institutions to explore ways of strengthening innovation and entrepreneurship in the region.

Sarma said deep tech represented a new frontier in India's energy transition and expressed confidence that MC² + Ignite, with IIT Guwahati as its anchor, would help develop solutions to real-world challenges in the energy and hydrocarbon sectors.

"From our river islands to the depths of our riverbeds, Assam presents immense challenges, and it is our own innovators who are best equipped to build the solutions," he said.

"This is how Assam steps up as an innovation hub, beyond being just an investment destination," Sarma added.

The chief minister also inaugurated the dedicated MC²+ Co-Working Space and Innovation Node at the NRL Centre in Guwahati.

The facility has more than 50 workstations, 16 cabins and dedicated rooms for investors and technical consultants. It is aimed at providing startups with infrastructure, technical expertise and industry connections to accelerate innovation and business growth.

The facility will also provide startups from the Northeast with a platform to connect their indigenous innovations with the requirements, expertise and capabilities of major public-sector enterprises.

The event saw participation from more than 200 startups, while over 1,500 registrations were recorded. Around 1,000 students also participated, reflecting growing interest in entrepreneurship and innovation among young people in the region.

The MC² Foundation has been conceived under the aegis of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to create a dedicated national platform for taking indigenous energy technologies from laboratories to the field.

The initiative is backed by a consortium of Oil and Gas Central Public Sector Enterprises, including ONGC, Oil India Limited, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, GAIL and Petronet LNG.

MC² has a committed corpus of Rs 455 crore over five years.

The platform seeks to bridge the gap between technology innovation and commercial deployment through a structured pathway covering discovery through national Grand Challenges, milestone-linked grant funding, co-development with academic and CPSE research centres and field pilots at live PSU installations.

It will also provide regulatory support through a sector sandbox and a defined procurement pathway to help successful technologies transition into the requirements of CPSEs.

The initiative is expected to strengthen linkages between India's startup ecosystem, academic research institutions and the country's major energy companies, while creating a pathway for indigenous technologies developed in the Northeast to reach commercial deployment.