MSME-Technology Development Centre (PPDC), Meerut

Check the route before you apply

• Idea at the laboratory or workshop stage: the incubator is aimed at this stage. Describe the idea and what you still need to test or build.
• Testing or workshop work only: the testing laboratory and the workshops take job work and consultancy. That is a separate route from incubation.

Prepare the Application of Entrepreneur/Incubatee form

• Give the applicant details, the company details and the project details the form asks for.
• Say whether you have registered a company, and give the details if you have.
• Describe the technology or product, its development status and its readiness level.
• Give the months you expect the innovation to need before it is ready for field testing.
• Attach a business plan for taking the innovation from lab to market. The form asks for one in your own format.
• State the funding you would need, as the form asks.

What the form asks about

• What is already on the market, what potential it has, and what value it would add.
• Whether the idea uses existing intellectual property, and who owns it.
• The activities the funding would pay for, such as design, prototype development, trials and test marketing.

Where to send it

The site does not say where to send the form. The contact page lists pd@ppdcmeerut.com, so start there and ask whether the incubator is taking applications now.

MSME-Technology Development Centre (PPDC), Meerut, is a common facility centre in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, run under the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises of the Government of India. It was established in 1986 and combines a tool room, a testing laboratory and a training section with a business incubator for entrepreneurs who have a technology or product idea. Its own site uses the short form MSME-TDC.

Purpose

The centre's stated objective is to uplift the indigenous sports goods industry by making available appropriate technology and trained manpower, and to provide research and development facilities for quality upgradation and new designs. Its about page says it works especially with the sports goods sector and, more widely, with micro, small and medium enterprises in India.

How the business incubator works

The incubator follows a Government of India scheme that supports entrepreneurial and managerial development through business incubators. The guidelines published on the centre's site describe the aim as promoting emerging technological and knowledge-based innovative ventures, taking an idea from its conception to know-how and then to the stage of doing it in practice. The support is meant for people who want to try an innovative idea at the laboratory or workshop stage and beyond.

The guidelines say the support includes laboratory and workshop facilities, along with guidance and assistance for young innovators, and business mentoring, technology support and networks. Selected entrepreneurs pay a share of the cost of the support under a tripartite agreement between the government, the host institute and the entrepreneur. The guidelines are dated May 2010, so the current terms should be confirmed with the centre.

Who can apply

The guidelines name students and ex-students of science and technology, and entrepreneurs, as the people the scheme is meant to support. The application form asks whether you have registered a company and, if you have, for its details. The site does not say whether a company must already exist before you apply, so ask the centre directly.

What the centre has on site

The testing laboratory covers physical and chemical testing of footwear, leather, plastics, rubbers, packaging materials, textiles and sports goods. Its tests follow standards such as ISO, EN, SATRA, AATCC and DIN. The workshops cover machining with CNC lathe, CNC milling and wire-cut EDM equipment, wood working for sports goods, leather finishing, and rubber and plastic moulding and extrusion. Several of the workshops also take job work, and the centre runs short-term training in several of these trades.

Track record

The achievements page lists inspection and testing services for different organizations, the development of a riser for an archery bow, and the start of skill courses under PMKVY and UPSDM. The site does not publish a count of startups or incubatees, so none is given here. The training page says most trainees of its programmes are placed or self-employed in the sports goods and allied industry, but it gives no count.

Who runs it

The centre is governed by a Governing Council constituted by the Government of India, and the Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner (MSME) chairs it. The site names two different Principal Directors on two pages, so this page does not name one. Check the current name with the centre before you write to anyone.

Locations

The centre is at Sports Goods Complex, Delhi Road, Meerut, 250002. The office works Monday to Saturday, 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM.

Before you apply

The guidelines say the scheme was proposed to be implemented from financial year 2008-09. The site gives no intake date, no fee schedule and no current funding position for the incubator. Ask the centre whether it is taking applications now and on what terms before you prepare a full proposal.