Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) Incubation Programs

Check eligibility first

• You need to be a DPIIT-recognised startup, or an individual innovator or team from an academic institution or research organisation.
• Your project must be at TRL-3 or below, and it must fit one of C-DOT's focus domain areas.
• Say whether you have already received a government scheme grant for the same proposal. The programme rules exclude it.

Choose your entry route

• Apply directly by online registration. This is a continuous process.
• Watch for problem statements that C-DOT floats on its website every month, and submit a proposal against one.
• Contests, hackathons and idea fests are also used as entry points.

What your proposal must show

• The hardware and software features of the product.
• The tools and test equipment the project needs.
• How you will test and verify the developed product.
• Your business plan.

Pick the right phase

• Without a proof of concept or prototype, you start in the Nurture phase, incubated in the facility.
• With a proof of concept or prototype already in place, you can join the Develop phase, which also requires incubation in the facility.
• The Market phase covers commercialisation and patenting. Support there goes only to teams incubated in earlier phases.

How selection works

Proposals are evaluated across several stages before the Apex committee grants final approval.

For queries, write to coi_3c@cdot.in.

C-DOT Incubation Programs run from the Centres of Innovation of the Centre for Development of Telematics, a telecom technology centre of the Government of India. The Centres are at C-DOT's Mehrauli campus in New Delhi and its Electronic City campus in Bengaluru. The programme supports early-stage startups and innovators working on telecom and associated technologies, from idea to scale.

Who can apply

DPIIT-recognised startups can apply, as can individual innovators and teams of innovators from academic institutions and research organisations. The project must be at TRL-3 or below and must fit C-DOT's focus areas. These are quantum technologies, cyber security, 5G and 6G, telecom software for network and disaster management, AI use cases and IoT applications. A proposal must not already have received government scheme grants for the same work.

How the programme works

Incubation runs in three phases. The Nurture phase covers proof of concept or prototyping. The Develop phase covers product development and testing. Teams must be incubated in the facility during both. The Market phase covers commercialisation and patenting. Teams may or may not be incubated there, but support is only for teams that were incubated in the earlier phases.

Facilities and support

Teams get fully air-conditioned incubation space with workstations, cubicles and conference halls. Space is made available based on requirements, as per policy. C-DOT labs provide modern testing and validation facilities. Support includes mentoring from industry veterans, domain experts and academic experts, regular training, IPR and patenting support, legal and accounting support, and marketing. A corpus fund set up by C-DOT is disbursed to eligible startups and innovators as seed investment.

Scale and locations

The pages read do not publish a count of startups supported. The programme's stated objectives include collaborative incubation platforms with institutions such as TCOE, IISc and IITs for specific mentoring.