Cummins India Foundation’s CSR Grant for Projects addressing Social Needs

Deadline: 30-Aug-21

Venture Center and Cummins India Foundation have teamed up to support entrepreneurs / start ups working on technologies in energy and environment domain and generating potential social impact.

Objectives

To support technology incubation and technology entrepreneurs associated with Venture Center, an incubator approved by the Central Government (DST-NSTEDB and DBT – BIRAC of Ministry of Science and Technology).
Promote application of modern/advanced technologies to socio-economic problem solving

Focus Areas

The areas which will be considered for grant are called as key focus areas and are listed down as follows:

Energy & Environment
- Energy efficiency
- Renewable energy
- Air pollution
- Provisions for drinking water
- Waste management
- Alternative Energy
- Environment Clean tech
- Biomass utilization etc

Preference

There shall be no restriction on the background of the entrepreneur. However, preference may be given to:

Women entrepreneurs
Startups with validated technology addressing problems related to Energy and Environment
Social enterprises
Any other criteria suggested by the Project Oversight Committee (POC)

Benefits and Funding Information

The maximum support that can be provided per project is upto Rs. 5 lakhs
Duration of the project should be only upto 6 months.
Access to peer group of inventive startups
Focussed mentoring by domain experts
Access to high end facilities & follow on funding

Eligible Projects

Nature of projects supported

Eligible
- The project needs to define a technology solution to a well-defined problem
- The technology should be innovative/ novel
- Project should be focused on implementing a technology / conducting pilot studies.
Not eligible
- Pure software development with no IP potential
- Pure academic research

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility of Applicants and Project Leaders for projects

Every project proposal will need to identify a Project Leader and an Applicant/ Grantee
The Project Leader (PL) will be an individual who will take responsibility for executing the project.
The Applicant or Grantee can be either of the following:
- Case 1: Applicant is an individual
- Case 2: Applicant is a company
PL has to be an individual (one person).
PL is required to be at least 18 years of age as on the date of call for applications.
PL is required to be Indian Citizen. An Indian citizen is defined as one who is in possession of a government approved proof of nationality such as a valid passport, voter’s id etc. Exceptional cases of foreign nationals with potential for impact in India will be considered.
PL has to pursue the project or startup full time with no other concurrent commitments during the project duration.
PL cannot be pursuing a long-term academic/research project (like doctoral students) with significant obligations during the project duration.
PL must have completed basic undergraduate training in natural sciences/engineering/ medicine. Essential qualification is PhD/ MTech/ BTech/ BPharm /MD/ MBBS/ BDS/ MSc / MPhil/ M Des/ MPH /MBA / MSW and equivalents, with under- graduate training in Science, Medicine, Engineering. Applicants with a BSc degree with at least 1 year of full-time work or research experience shall also be eligible
If Applicant is a company, the Company/LLP should be registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1956/2013
The company should be owned by resident Indian citizens i.e. minimum 51% of the capital is beneficially owned by resident Indian citizen(s) and / or Indian companies, which are ultimately owned and controlled by resident Indian citizens