30 teams selected for Carbon Zero Challenge contest

Top five teams will then be selected for grant of ₹10 lakh seed capital for a start-up and support from the Institute for incubation with support from angel investors and venture capitalists

Thirty teams have been selected from among 750 who registered for the third edition of Carbon Zero Challenge competition at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

The selected teams will develop prototypes of an environment-friendly technology. The teams will train for six months at the institute to build a prototype of an environment-friendly technology, identify customers and develop a viable business model for commercialisation of their innovation.

Top five teams will then be selected for grant of ₹10 lakh seed capital for a start-up and support from the Institute for incubation and from angel investors and venture capitalists.

The institute has set up a centre for circularity and sustainability of entities for capacity building of industries. An end-to-end portal to receive, evaluate and track the progress of start-up ideas was launched.

Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi, who participated in the event, said battery operated vehicles had replaced diesel vehicles to collect waste. The city had 5,200 electric vehicles to collect waste and had started 175 micro-collecting centres to decentralise waste composting and avoid artificial mountains outside the cities, he said. “We plan to convert about 2,500 metric tonnes to bio-CNG,” he said.

Institute director V. Kamakoti announced that the institute planned to launch a dual degree programme on sustainability policy development.

Sivarajah Ramanathan, mission director and CEO of Tamil Nadu Start-up and Innovation Mission, said the State government had allocated ₹500 crore to support climate-related activities and would soon be launching an initiative to support green projects.