Hyderabad: NAARM inks pact with horti-varsity, other institutions to support start-ups

Hyderabad: The Association for Innovation Development of Entrepreneurship in Agriculture and Technology Business Incubator (a-IDEA-TBI) hosted by National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) has entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) on Friday with NACL Industries Ltd, Sri Konda Laxma Reddy Telangana State Horticultural University (SKLTSHU) Hyderabad, Sugarcane Breeding Institute (SBI) Coimbatore and National Research Centre on Grapes, Pune at NAARM.

Through this MoA it was mandated to support the start-ups, incubated at a-IDEA, through providing them the required facilities to flourish further like co-incubation, technical support, mentoring, lab facilities, networking, value added services and co-networking opportunities.

Dr Senthil Vinayagam, the CEO a-IDEA and principal scientist at NAARM is instrumental in shaping the MoA. The MoA was organised in the presence of Dr G Venkateswarlu, Joint Director, NAARM.

Ravi, Head, Strategy and Corporate Development, Sanam Hera from NACL, Dr A Bhagwan, Registrar and Dr A Kiran Kumar, Dean of Horticulture, and Dr D Vijaya, Officer Incharge PGIHS from SKLTSHU, Dr G Hemaprabha, Director and Dr Murali, Principal Scientist at SBI, Dr R G Somkuwar, Director and Dr Ajay Kumar Sharma, Principal Scientist at NRC Grapes, Pune represented their respective organisation and extended their cooperation in shaping the purpose. The event was attended by NAARM faculty, A-idea personnel and incubates of A-idea besides the staff members of the participating organisations.

a-IDEA is an Agri based Technology Business Incubator hosted by NAARM. It is a flagship incubator under the Startup India Initiative of the Government of India housed at the Centre for Agri-Innovation for fostering innovation and entrepreneurship within the agriculture domain in India.

a-IDEA aims to help entrepreneurs to ideate, incubate and accelerate their innovative early-stage startups that are scalable to become competitive food and agri-business ventures through capacity building, mentoring, networking and advisory support.

The incubator is working across the value chains in agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries sector in input, finance, mechanization, IoTs and ICTs, soil and water technologies, supply chain technologies, post-harvest and food, etc. verticals.