New Delhi: The National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) on Tuesday celebrated its 72nd Foundation Day with the inauguration of the Systems Engineering Facility (SEF), marking a significant step towards strengthening India’s deep-tech commercialization and innovation ecosystem.
The SEF has been inaugurated by Dr N. Kalaiselvi, Director General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India, in the presence of Cmde. Amit Rastogi (Retd.), Chairman and Managing Director, NRDC, and other senior dignitaries.
Addressing the gathering, Cmde. Amit Rastogi highlighted NRDC’s seven-decade-long journey and its renewed strategic focus on enabling deep-tech commercialization, supporting startups and MSMEs, and building institutional mechanisms to bridge the gap between research outcomes and market deployment. He said NRDC’s initiatives are aligned with national priorities such as Viksit Bharat@2047, Startup India and Atmanirbhar Bharat, reiterating the organisation’s commitment to developing globally competitive indigenous technologies.
As part of the Foundation Day celebrations, NRDC exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), aimed at collaborative innovation and strengthening systems engineering capabilities in the country.
A key highlight of the event was the launch of the Systems Engineering Facility, a national initiative of NRDC established in strategic collaboration with Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering (PCCoE), Maharashtra. The facility was inaugurated in the presence of Mr Prasanna Ramamurthy, President, INCOSE, and Dr G. N. Kulkarni, Director, PCCoE. In her address, Dr Kalaiselvi underscored the importance of systems engineering in managing technological complexity, accelerating innovation and ensuring that indigenous technologies mature into scalable, deployable solutions.
The SEF has been conceptualised as a national platform to support incubated startups, MSMEs and innovators by bridging the gap between ideas and validated technological solutions. It offers end-to-end support across the innovation lifecycle, including requirements analysis, system architecture design, modelling and simulation, integration, verification and validation.
The celebrations also reflected NRDC’s broader mandate of facilitating technology transfer and enhancing industry participation in publicly funded research. During the event, technology licensing agreements were signed and exchanged, including the licensing of an electric tractor technology developed by CSIR–CMERI, West Bengal, to Mistrijee Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Patna, in the presence of Dr Naresh Chandra Murmu, Director, CMERI, CSIR. Another licensing agreement involved a sustainable vegan leather alternative developed by CSIR–NIIST, Thiruvananthapuram, which was licensed to M/s EcoSolutions Pvt. Ltd. in the presence of Dr Nishy P., Chief (BD), NEIST, Trivandrum. The technology is produced entirely from plant-based resources and agro-residues.
Recognising excellence and innovation, NRDC presented awards to its employees in multiple categories. The Best Employee (Non-Technical) award was conferred on Khushboo (Public Relations & Corporate Communications) for enhancing NRDC’s brand visibility. The winner and runner-up awards for Technology Presentation were given to Prithee Niharika, Deputy Manager, and Priyanka Aswal, Senior Technical Assistant, respectively. The award for the Naming and Logo Designing Contest for the AI-enabled Technology Exchange was presented to Dr Akanksha Jain, Deputy Manager, NRDC.
NRDC also announced seed funding support of Rs 30 lakh each to VoltWorks Technologies Pvt. Ltd. for its automotive-grade electric vehicle powertrain solution, and to Tri Nano Technologies for its advanced nano-coating technology for solar panels, which improves efficiency while reducing maintenance requirements and resource consumption.
In addition, NRDC launched the MSME–Technology Transfer Facilitation Centre, which will provide MSMEs with financial support of up to 70 percent for IP protection and technology acquisition. The initiative aims to reduce innovation-related costs, enhance competitiveness and accelerate technology commercialization.
The 72nd Foundation Day celebrations and the inauguration of the Systems Engineering Facility reaffirm NRDC’s commitment to fostering a robust innovation ecosystem in India by enabling indigenous research to evolve into scalable, market-ready solutions through structured systems engineering practices, technology transfer and targeted support for startups and MSMEs.
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