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 IIT Kanpur's technology business incubator Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) has partnered with the Central government's Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, to facilitate the MSME Design Innovative Scheme and leverage design expertise/design fraternity for the betterment of the country's manufacturing sector.

In this partnership, select start-ups would be given grant-in-aid for developing prototypes.

According to a release, the Design Innovative Scheme by the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, provides grants to the final year U-G and P-G students engaged in design development and MSMEs working in the design domain.

The grant for the students is up to Rs 1.5 lakh, while it ranges between Rs 15 to 40 lakh for the MSMEs.

These funds are awarded for one year for the development of select prototypes.

Seven projects by seven enterprises have been approved for prototype development which includes M/S Asatrobo Technologies Pvt. Ltd., M/S Kanpur Writers, M/S Water N Spices Foodsz Pvt. Ltd., Villa Mart Pvt. Ltd., M/S Agronxt Services Pvt. Ltd., M/S LCB Fertilizers Pvt. Ltd, M/S Acquafront Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.

These seven enterprises will get the grant-in-aid to develop the following prototypes.

M/S Asatrobo Technologies Pvt. Ltd: 'Drones for Drone Light Show' -- this project envisages the design and development of a drone for a drone show that would be compatible with the software from UGCS (a world-leading firm for drone shows).

M/S Kanpur Writers: 'Industrial Electronic Controller for Pen Point Welding Machine' which is an Industrial Electronic controller based on a high-speed Micro-controller and other cutting-edge components. The proposed device can weld pen point balls up to 1.5mm in diameter.

M/S Water N Spices Foodsz Pvt. Ltd will be an 'Automatic Stuffing Dispenser, IoT with remote control'. The automatic Stuffing Dispenser will come with stainless steel food grade 304 bucket and sensor-based nozzles inbuilt with a mixer and grinder, operated by IoT applications to mix, grind and dispense semi-liquid/paste/chutneys and other ingredients.

Villa Mart Pvt. Ltd.: 'IoT based portable jaggery maker' which will be a portable solution to extract juice and make jaggery at farmers' places. The juice is filtered through an SS mesh after the extraction, followed by cooking in the designated container.

M/S Agronxt Services Pvt. Ltd.: 'Affordable Weather cum Insect monitoring station with Integrated Advisory and Prediction system.' The product comes with 2G cellular connectivity that sends data to the cloud periodically with data transmission. It is powered using a 7W portable solar panel with 4400mAH 18650 battery, and is equipped with a soil moisture sensor, 5 MP camera, IPX3 and IP65 core electronics components.

M/S LCB Fertilizers Pvt. Ltd.: 'Nanocoated seed'. These seeds contain a layer of super-absorbent polymer, reducing the demand for time-to-time irrigation.

M/S Acquafront Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.: 'RCC Floating Photo Voltaic (FPV) Beams'. The start-up is developing a 100-kWh peak capacity floating Photovoltaic (FPV) grid using glass fibre reinforced concrete (GFRC) floating beams. Solar panels are mounted on top of GFRC floating beams. These beams are filled with Expanded Poly Styrene (EPS) to ensure virtually unsinkable characteristics.

Ankush Sharma, Prof-in-charge, Innovation and Incubation, IIT Kanpur said: "IIT Kanpur is paving the path to promote the manufacturing industry by developing innovative technologies that will bring a significant global revolution to strengthen the self-reliant initiative."

He added: "With the great synergy between IIT Kanpur and the Ministry of MSME, we are looking forward to taking a giant leap ahead with their forthcoming MSME Innovative Design Programme MIDP. This initiative will provide an excellent support to budding entrepreneurs."