NSUT Innovation and Incubation Foundation (NSUT-IIF)

Work out which door you are knocking on

NSUT-IIF's Apply page lists open calls from several organisations side by side. Before you spend time on an entry, check who is actually running it. Two are NSUT-IIF's own — AI4Humanity Delhi and the NSUT campus round of Delhi AI Grind. The rest are other organisations' calls that NSUT-IIF is circulating, and those applications go to them, not to NSUT-IIF.

There is no standing incubation form

If what you want is the two-year incubation, there is nothing to fill in online. Write to the support inbox (support.nsutiif@nsut.ac.in) with a short note on what you are building, your stage, and any NSUT connection you have. Ask three things in the same mail:

• whether the incubation is open to founders with no NSUT link, and what the Delhi Government eligibility guidelines require
• whether NSUT-IIF takes equity or charges anything
• what the seed support involves and what the two years actually include

None of this is published, so an early answer saves you guessing.

If you have an NSUT connection, say so up front

The foundation was set up to incubate startups founded by NSUT students, alumni and faculty, and its academic support is marked as available only to NSUT people. If you are a student, alumnus or faculty member, lead with that — it is the clearest eligibility route on the site.

For the student programmes

Delhi AI Grind is open to undergraduate and postgraduate students under 25 from any discipline, alone or in teams of up to five, and states that no AI or coding background is needed. Entries are judged on clarity of thought, curiosity and problem-solving, so a well-framed problem and a plainly explained approach beat a technical one nobody can follow. AI4Humanity screens first-round entries on innovation, feasibility, technical clarity, scalability and real-world impact, and shortlisted teams demo live to a jury — build something you can show, not just describe.

Watch the dates

Several calls stay on the page after their deadline has passed. Check the deadline on the entry itself before starting, and follow the foundation's WhatsApp channel or social accounts for new ones, since the Apply page is the only place they are published.

NSUT Innovation and Incubation Foundation (NSUT-IIF) is the incubator of Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT, formerly Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology) in Dwarka, New Delhi. It is a separate legal body from the university — a Section 8 company under the Companies Act, 2013, founded in October 2016 — with its office in Room 410 of the Library Block on the NSUT campus. It incubates startups founded by NSUT students, alumni and faculty, and other eligible incubatees, under the guidance of the Government of NCT of Delhi.

Its own pages write the name two ways, as NSUT Innovation and Incubation Foundation and as NSUT Incubation and Innovation Foundation. Both refer to the same body, usually shortened to NSUT-IIF or NSUT IIF.

How incubation works

The core offer is a two-year incubation period supported with seed funding from NSUT-IIF. Around it, the foundation lists mentorship from industry experts, financial assistance, academic support (which it marks as available only to NSUT people), networking and outreach, high-end tech support, and hands-on learning. A separate description of the foundation adds business advisory, access to funding opportunities, market linkages, infrastructure and capacity-building support, and names technology commercialisation and industry-academia collaboration among its objectives.

The site does not publish the terms of that incubation. It does not say whether NSUT-IIF takes equity, whether it charges a fee, how much seed support a startup receives, or what the selection process looks like. A founder weighing it up should ask on the support inbox before assuming any of these.

Who can apply

The stated intake is startups of NSUT students, alumni and faculty, plus "any other incubatee" who is eligible per Delhi Government guidelines. Those guidelines are not published on the site, so the route in for a founder with no NSUT connection is real in principle but undefined in practice — it is the first thing to ask about. There is also no standing incubation application form anywhere on the site. Everything you can apply to sits on one Apply page as a list of open calls, each with its own external form and, where set, its own deadline.

Read that Apply page carefully, because it mixes two different things. Some entries are NSUT-IIF's own: its AI4Humanity Delhi summit and innovation challenge, and the NSUT campus round of Delhi AI Grind. Others are open calls from entirely separate organisations that NSUT-IIF is passing on to its community — a bank's national grants programme, a Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology-funded electronics incubator's challenge, the national seed fund scheme, and a Delhi student festival. Nothing on the page says NSUT-IIF is the implementing incubator for any of those, and the track records quoted alongside them belong to the organisations running them, not to NSUT-IIF. Its staff vacancies are posted in the same list.

Programmes and events

AI4Humanity Delhi is NSUT-IIF's own AI impact summit and innovation challenge, combining speaker sessions, panel discussions, startup pitches and a student challenge, with an online screening round feeding an offline finale on the NSUT campus. The 2026 edition ran in February.

Delhi AI Grind is a city-wide student innovation programme anchored by the Delhi government's Department of Education, Higher and Technical Education, and NSUT-IIF hosts its NSUT campus round. It is open to undergraduate and postgraduate students under 25 from any discipline, individually or in teams of up to five, with no prior AI or coding background required. Ideas selected at the campus round go on to state-level finals.

The foundation also runs short hands-on workshops on campus. A two-day workshop on 3D printing and rapid prototyping was offered free to school students in classes 8 to 12, covering CAD basics, slicing, live printing and hands-on printer operation, with a participation certificate. A second edition of a hands-on workshop on smart sensing with the Internet of Things was held for students in July 2026. These are teaching events rather than startup programmes, but they are the clearest sign of what the foundation runs day to day.

Scale

The homepage carries a set of counters: 45+ startups incubated, 500+ entrepreneurs engaged, 150+ jobs created and 12+ graduated. They are self-reported and carry no date, so treat them as the foundation's own claim rather than a measured figure. Two more counters cover money raised and portfolio valuation.

The startups page names its portfolio, which is the more useful number to look at. Nine companies are listed as currently incubated — XeroCodee in Kubernetes tooling, GlowriousGreen in organic fertilisers, Urverdure in hydroponics, FeetWings in wearable health, Tap & Draw from the Delhi government's Business Blasters programme, Made 2 Automate in manufacturing, Neem Tree Agro Solutions in agritech, Tech Swarm in drone services and BonFarmo in sugarcane machinery. Nine more are listed as graduated, among them Readers Crib, VivaFeet, AlNourish, Zalonin, Vikarma Edutech, SoCTeamup in chip design, Ethimo Ethnics, DarkChocoBitz and Hanufit. The mix is wide: agritech, health wearables, drones, cloud tooling, semiconductors and consumer brands, rather than a single sector focus.

Who runs it

Mr. Himanshu Singhal is listed as CEO. Mr. Akhilesh Yadav and Mr. Jatin Dogra are listed as incubation managers, with Mr. Jagdish Singh on office administration and Mr. Puneet Kr. Dubey on accounts. The board is chaired by Prof. Anand Srivastava, with Prof. Prerna Gaur as director and member secretary, alongside Prof. J.P. Saini, Prof. M.P.S. Bhatia, Prof. Vijander Singh, Mr. Ajay Goel, Sh. Rajbir Singh and Sh. Anupam Saronwala. A panel of advisors and mentors includes people from SIDBI, NASSCOM and HDFC, an advocate acting as legal advisor, and entrepreneur mentors.

Location and contact

NSUT-IIF is at Room 410, Library Block 4th floor, NSUT Campus, Azad Hind Fauz Marg, Sector 3, Dwarka, New Delhi 110078. There is one campus and no other offices. The support inbox is support.nsutiif@nsut.ac.in; the site also lists connect.nsutiif@nsut.ac.in and nsutiif@nsut.ac.in, and two different phone numbers on different pages. Careers: staff vacancies for the foundation are posted on the same Apply page as its open calls, and the university's own notice board carries senior vacancies from time to time. Updates and event announcements go out on its WhatsApp channel and its social accounts.