Nasscom AI Centre of Excellence, Gandhinagar

Pick the right route in

• You have a deep-tech product for manufacturers and want mentoring, industry introductions and investor connects: GrowX is the programme to ask about.
• You want a paying government or enterprise customer for an AI product you have already built: apply against a specific AI Innovation Challenge use case. This is the route with published openings and published rules.
• You sell to manufacturing MSMEs: the UDYAM 4.0 forum and the Smart Manufacturing Competency Center are where those buyers are, rather than programmes you join as a startup.

How applications work

There is no single application form for the centre. For GrowX and the other programmes, write to SmartManufacturing@nasscom.in naming the programme you are interested in; for anything else, aicoe@nasscom.in is the general inbox. The AI Innovation Challenge is different: each use case has its own listing and its own apply button on the centre's use-case platform, and each one is marked open or closed separately. Check the status on the use case you want before you write anything.

How selection works on the challenge

The challenge publishes its scoring weights, so write to them. Relevance to the specific use case and technical capability carry the most weight, followed by past work in a similar domain and how novel your approach is, then scalability and implementation readiness, then security and privacy compliance and a realistic cost and timeline for the proof of concept.

What reviewers look for

• A solution mapped to their problem, not a general product pitch. Each use case is written by the department that owns it and spells out what it wants.
• Something already working. An existing prototype or demo is scored directly, and the centre frames both its programmes around market-ready solutions.
• Depth, not buzzwords. The scoring mentions model architecture, understanding of the data and algorithmic efficiency.
• Evidence you have done this before in a similar domain.
• Handling of data and privacy, which matters because these are government records.

Before you apply

• Check you meet the challenge's formal criteria: registered company, LLP or partnership firm, within ten years of incorporation, below the published turnover ceiling.
• Have a realistic proof-of-concept plan with a timeline. It is scored.
• Expect the commercial terms after a win to be settled with the department or company that owns the use case, not with the centre.
• If you are early and still building, say so and ask about GrowX instead — the challenge is written for teams with something to deploy.

The Nasscom AI Centre of Excellence is a government-backed deep-tech centre on the 13th floor of GIFT One Tower in GIFT City, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Its own pages describe it as a Digital India initiative led jointly by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of Gujarat, and nasscom. The centre was launched in Gandhinagar on 11 September 2019 as the Centre of Excellence for AI and IoT, and the AI Centre of Excellence itself was established by the Department of Science and Technology together with Gujarat Informatics Limited, in partnership with nasscom, Microsoft and Google. The site still carries both names, so you will see it called the Centre of Excellence for IoT, Gandhinagar, the nasscom CoE, and the Nasscom AI Centre of Excellence.

What it does

The centre's stated vision is to make India an Industry 4.0 hub globally. It works on four priorities it sets out itself: creating awareness of Industry 4.0 adoption, developing startup capability, co-creating solutions with enterprises and startups, and promoting research with academia. In practice that means it sits between manufacturers and government departments on one side and deep-tech startups on the other, and tries to turn the first group's problems into work for the second.

How programmes work

There are two things here for a founder. GrowX is the centre's startup growth accelerator, for deep-tech startups building digital solutions for the manufacturing industry, and it is described as aimed at mature startups rather than ideas. Startups on GrowX get business and technology mentoring through the centre's Samvad 4.0 sessions, introductions to senior executives at large manufacturers, connections to venture capitalists and angel investors, help applying for government grants, product development infrastructure including lab access and technical experts, and a slot on the Smart Manufacturing Competency Center to show their work to manufacturing leaders. Mentoring runs as one-to-one sessions: you share your challenges in advance, the centre's focal point sets up the meeting, and the notes and next steps come back to you afterwards.

The AI Innovation Challenge is the other route, and it is the one with live openings. Gujarat government departments and private companies post real operational problems as use cases, and AI and deep-tech startups from anywhere in India apply against a specific use case. Recent open ones include an assistant for the Gujarat Real Estate Regulatory Authority and two for the Gujarat Subordinate Service Selection Board. Winners get to build the solution for the department through a paid proof of concept, a one-year membership of the AI CoE Startup Accelerator Program, and an introduction to the department or company that owns the use case, which then decides commercial terms directly with them.

The centre also runs programmes aimed at industry rather than startups: UDYAM 4.0, a closed forum for manufacturing MSMEs below a published turnover ceiling, Fusion 4.0, a workshop format that puts user companies, startups and academia in one room, and the Smart Manufacturing Competency Center, a virtual space where manufacturers can see Industry 4.0 solutions demonstrated. These matter to a founder mainly as a way to reach customers.

Who can apply

GrowX is for deep-tech startups with digital products for manufacturing; the centre does not publish a formal checklist for it. The AI Innovation Challenge does publish one. You must be an innovator or mature startup with deep-tech capability and a market-ready digital solution, incorporated as a private limited company or registered as a partnership firm or an LLP, within ten years of incorporation, below the published turnover ceiling in any previous financial year, and working on innovation or improvement of products, services or processes with the potential to create jobs or wealth. An entity formed by splitting up or reconstructing an existing business does not count as a startup.

The centre says plainly that it takes no equity from startups, that its initiatives are government supported, and that it charges startups a nominal fee.

Facilities

Startups that need somewhere to build can use the centre's own facility as co-working space, and GrowX lists lab access and tie-ups with industry accelerator programmes under product development infrastructure. The Smart Manufacturing Competency Center is a virtual showcase rather than a physical lab.

Scale

The centre's home page counters report 35 industry partners, 700 connected startups, 65 enrolled startups and 15 use-case proofs of concept. Its startup page names 30 companies in the current cohort and 34 graduated ones, among them FluxGen Sustainable Technologies, AIRPIX, Sensegiz, Nanoprecise, Eugenie, Maximl, XYMA, Blockarmour and Udyogyantra. The AI Innovation Challenge page separately reports 35 challenges posted by enterprises and government departments, more than 500 applications from AI and deep-tech startups, and more than 100 solutions showcased by shortlisted startups. These are the centre's own published figures.

Who runs it

Amit Saluja is Senior Director and head of the manufacturing vertical, and is also listed as an advisor to the centre. Yagndeep Gohil leads startup engagement and Kritika Sharma leads startup and industry engagement; Amit Borundiya heads technology. The advisory group includes Sachin Gusia, IRS, Managing Director of Gujarat Informatics Limited at the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat, and Dr. Sudhir K Jain, Director of IIT Gandhinagar, alongside senior industry figures from Navin Group, Zydus, Dev Information Technology, JK Lakshmi Cement and NetWeb Software.

Where it is and how to reach it

The centre is at the 13th floor, GIFT One Tower, GIFT City, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382355. General enquiries go to aicoe@nasscom.in. To ask about a specific programme, or to ask how to apply, the centre asks you to write to SmartManufacturing@nasscom.in and says its team will talk you through it. Its events page lists conclaves and meet-ups, though the newest entries on it date from 2024.