Maharashtra State Innovation Society (MSInS)

Maharashtra State Innovation Society (MSInS) is the Government of Maharashtra's nodal agency for building an innovation-driven entrepreneurial ecosystem across the state. It sits under the state's Department of Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and its General Body is chaired by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Who runs it

MSInS's General Body is chaired by the Chief Minister, with the Minister of Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation as Vice Chairman and Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar, former Director General of CSIR, serving as Advisor. Day-to-day operations are led by CEO Shri Lahu Mali, IAS, and Joint CEO Dr. Vikas Naik. Below the General Body sits a Governing Council, ex-officio chaired by the Additional Chief Secretary of the Department of Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, with Principal Secretaries from the state's Industries, Higher & Technical Education, Agriculture, Urban Development, Public Health and IT departments sitting as members alongside MSInS's own CEO. This structure — a Chief-Minister-chaired body backed by a council of department secretaries — reflects MSInS's role as a cross-department coordinating agency rather than a single-sector incubator.

What they run

MSInS's own site currently promotes three initiatives on its homepage: Maharashtra Startup Week, a state-run competition that has previously invited startups to pitch solutions to governance challenges (past editions were covered by national press through 2018–2020); the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Women Startup Scheme, a scheme for women-led startups with a live application link; and dedicated pages on IP support and quality testing/certification for startups, linked directly from the homepage banners. Beyond the homepage links, MSInS's programme-detail pages are served by a client-side application that this research could not fully render, so eligibility, selection process and participant benefits for these initiatives are not independently confirmed here — check the official links before relying on programme mechanics.

Partners

MSInS lists a number of ecosystem partners on its site, including the Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC), AGNIi (the Government of India's innovation-matching platform), AWS Activate, Social Alpha, 100x.VC, Indian Angel Network, TiE Mumbai, CII and Acumen.

Policy resources

MSInS publishes a set of Government of Maharashtra policy documents on its site as reference material for founders, including the state's Startup Policy, the Maharashtra Industrial Policy, a Labour Department government resolution for startups, a 2025 Maharashtra Startup, Entrepreneurship & Innovation Policy, the state Fintech Policy, the Maharashtra EV Policy, the Shops and Establishment Act, and the Maharashtra Procurement Policy — useful background reading for any startup registering or operating in the state.

How to apply

MSInS does not run one common application process — each scheme has its own application link, typically hosted on an Accubate-based form linked from the scheme's page or a homepage banner, rather than a single central portal.