2 weeks ago
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The Puduvai Innovation Competition (PIC) 2026 concluded with a expansive finale astatine the Central Auditorium of Puducherry Technological University (PTU) connected Sunday, capping a pupil innovation thrust that attracted 254 teams from engineering colleges crossed Puducherry.
After aggregate phases of evaluation, arsenic galore arsenic 8 teams secured a Seed Grant of ₹15 lakh support.
Jointly organised by the Union Ministry of Education, Directorate of Higher and Technical Education (Government of Puducherry), and PTU arsenic pb big — with Atal Incubation Centre-PEC Foundation (AIC-PECF) arsenic State execution spouse — the lawsuit was co-funded nether the PM-USHA Scheme.
Organised nether the taxable “From Ideas to Impact,” the Innovation Competition was conceived arsenic a dynamic level to identify, nurture, and enactment innovative ideas from the pupil ecosystem, helping alteration early-stage concepts into scalable solutions done structured mentoring, prototyping support, and incubation opportunities.
According to an official, the contention was structured crossed 4 levels: successful Level 1, 70 teams were shortlisted from 254 applications based connected their conception submissions; Level 2 saw prototype presentations evaluated by adept panel, narrowing the tract to 30 teams; Level 3 comprised a structured mentorship bootcamp followed by a concern exemplary pitch, from which the apical 15 teams were selected for the final; and successful Level 4, the last pitches were presented earlier a assemblage connected Sunday.
Professor S. Mohan, Vice-Chancellor of PTU underscored the university’s unwavering committedness to fostering a civilization of innovation and entrepreneurship among its students. He said that PTU has ever believed that the existent measurement of acquisition lies not simply successful world accomplishment but successful the quality to lick real-world problems.
“The PIC-2026 has shown that our students are much than acceptable to emergence to that responsibility,” helium said.
Armstrong Pame, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Education, Government of India, lauded the inaugural arsenic a almighty reflection of the PM-USHA Scheme’s halfway nonsubjective of transforming higher acquisition institutions into engines of innovation, employability, and entrepreneurship.
He observed competitions specified arsenic PIC-2026 were precisely the benignant of ground-level interventions that the Ministry envisions erstwhile it invests successful the higher acquisition ecosystem of Union Territories.
“What we are witnessing present contiguous is not conscionable a contention — it is the opening of a startup question rooted successful the ungraded of Puducherry. The Ministry of Education is committed to scaling specified initiatives and ensuring that each deserving thought finds the enactment it needs to turn into a solution that serves the nation,” helium said.
At the Grand Finale, the apical 8 teams of PIC-2026 were awarded a Prototyping Grant of ₹10,000 each successful designation of their innovation and prototype improvement work. The winning teams were awarded the SEED Support Grant worthy a full of ₹15 lakh nether the Ministry of Education PM-USHA Scheme.
The winning teams volition besides person incubation and scale-up enactment from Atal Incubation Centre-PEC Foundation, on with mentorship from manufacture experts and entree to the wider startup ecosystem.
