In a glittering ceremony “Start-up Sangam” held on 25th October 2017 graced by Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dr. H. Purushotham, Chairman and Managing Director, National Research Development Corporation, An Enterprise of Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India exchanged the partnership agreement with Shri Sanjiv Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL).The agreement was signed by Dr. S.S.V. Rama Kumar,.Director (R&D) IOCL and Dr H Purushotham, CMD, NRDC on behalf of the respective organizations. Shri K D Tripathi, Secretary, Petroleum & Natural Gas, Shri Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary DIPP, Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, CEOs of Oil Companies and Start up Promoters also witnessed the function.
Under this partnership agreement, NRDC will assist implementation of IOCL Start up scheme by way of providing mentoring, hand holding, incubation support, review and monitoring of the progress, IPR support, valuation of the startups, exit strategy and mid-course corrections if any, etc.
Major oil companies including IOCL, ONGC, HPCL, EIL, Oil India, NRL, BPCL created a Startup fund of Rs.320 Cr. which is to be invested in 3 years. In the first call IOCL supporting 11 energy related startups.