Over 1,250 entities have registered across the Indian Railways’ innovation portal and the Ministry has disbursed ₹43.87 crore across 23 awarded projects.
As per a statement by the Indian Railways, registrations on the portal include 248 start-ups, 671 individual innovators, 142 MSMEs, 58 R&D organisations and institutes, 47-odd entities across categories like proprietorships, partnerships, JV and consortium, and 19 NGOs. There are some 66 entities that fall within the others categories.
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The “Startups for Railways” initiative was launched by the Ministry with an objective to leverage innovative technologies developed by Indian start-ups, MSMEs, innovators and entrepreneurs. The idea was to improve operational efficiency and safety on Indian Railways.
“Under the policy, the Start-up/MSME/Innovator/Entrepreneur will have exclusive ownership of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) created in the project,” the Ministry statement said.