ONGC joins the brigade of ‘Startup India’, sets up Rs 100-cr fund for startups

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) recently said it has set up a Rs 100-crore startup fund to nurture new ideas related to the sector in New Delhi.

The initiative, christened ‘ONGC Startup’, is in line with the Government of India’s ‘Startup India’ initiative, the company said in a statement.

As part of this initiative, ONGC will provide the entire support chain for startups including seed capital, hand-holding, mentoring market linkage, and follow-ups.

The aim of ‘ONGC Startup’ is to increase the contribution of fresh implementable ideas in the oil and gas sector. ONGC is setting up a dedicated website to take this initiative forward, it said.

ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Dinesh K Sarraf said that this initiative will promote entrepreneurship among young Indians by creating an ecosystem that is conducive for the growth of startups in the oil and gas sector, which has huge potential for technology-enabled ideas.

The oil and gas sector, he said, is contributing enormously to the growth of economy. Currently, the sector faces various critical challenges and new ideas are required to mitigate those challenges. To encourage its own employees to innovate, ONGC also awarded three of its young officers Rajendra Bhambhu, Deepak Naik, and Prajesh Chopra, for their novel ideas.

Bhambhu and Naik developed an innovative safety device for rigs that facilitates setting up of emergency brakes to augment safety mechanism on drilling rigs. Chopra innovated a unique Dual SIM Cellular Router System that provides data connectivity at work-over rigs. This system curtails the hassle of frequent dismantling and reinstallation during rig transportation, thus saving time and money.

ONGC is headquartered in Dehradun,Uttarakhand. It is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) of the Government of India, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. It produces around 77 percent of India’s crude oil (equivalent to around 30 percent of the country’s total demand) and around 62 percent of its natural gas.

Are you a startup working in the technology space and looking to engage in a comprehensive startup ecosystem? Or a mature startup that has developed< a successful product and looking to pitch it against your peers? Then this is the space for you.