New Delhi, Jan 9 (KNN) The 'Startups for Railways' initiative by Indian Railways has gained significant momentum, with a total of 1251 entities now registered on the Indian Railway Innovation Portal.

Launched by the Ministry of Railways, the initiative is aimed at fostering collaboration with startups, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), innovators, entrepreneurs, and other entities to bring innovative technologies into the railway ecosystem.

The initiative has also seen significant financial backing, with the value of 23 awarded projects reaching Rs. 43.87 crore.

The cornerstone of this initiative is the Indian Railways Innovation Portal, accessible at https://innovation.indianrailways.gov.in/.

The portal serves as a hub for facilitating partnerships and showcasing innovative solutions to address operational efficiency and safety concerns within the Indian Railways network.

The primary objective of the initiative is to leverage cutting-edge technologies developed by Indian startups, MSMEs, innovators, and entrepreneurs to enhance the overall quality, reliability, and maintainability of the Indian Railways system.

A key feature of the policy is that the entities participating in the initiative will retain exclusive ownership of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) created during the project.

The breakdown of the registered entities includes 248 startups, 671 individual innovators, 142 MSMEs, 58 R&D organisations/institutes, 47 proprietorship/partnership firms/companies/LLPs/JVs/consortiums, 19 NGOs, and 66 others.

(KNN Bureau)