IIT-K, SBI Foundation launch startup innovations initiative
The initiative is also supported by SBI DFHI Limited and SBI Ventures. The programme was announced on Thursday at an event held at the IIT-K Outreach Centre, Noida.
The initiative will nurture 30 impact-driven startups—24 of which will be early-stage and 6 will be growth-stage—in domains such as AgriTech, Healthcare, and CleanTech. Spanning 18 months, the program will offer a structured incubation program with continuous mentoring, domain-specific support, and performance monitoring to ensure effective, socially impactful outcomes.
The launch event was attended by Amey Karkare, dean of resources and alumni, IIT-K; Deepu Philip, professor incharge, Innovation & Incubation, FIRST; Sanjay Prakash, MD & CEO, SBI Foundation; Ambika Prasad Bhuyan, vice president (head marketing and strategies), SBI DFHI Ltd; Kapil Kaul, CEO, IIT-Kanpur development foundation; Kumar Alok IAS (Retd.), former Chief Secretary Tripura and Prof of Practice, IIT-K; Aman Bhaiya, vice president and head (Strategy) SBI Foundation; and Piyush Mishra, COO, FIRST SIIC Kanpur, among other dignitaries.
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In one such game named Wheel World, you can take on elite cycling teams, scour the earth for rare parts, build the ultimate bike, and perform a ritual to save the world. In another game, ominously named Mycopunk, a ragtag squad of robots is tasked to rid the earth of a deadly fungal menace. That's all, for now. Bibek will be back with the next issue, in a fortnight.
