Punjab Agri Business Incubator (PABI), Punjab Agricultural University

Work out which programme fits

PABI runs two routes and they are separated by how far along you are, not by sector.

• Uddam, the Agripreneurship Orientation Programme — you have an idea and no prototype yet. Selection comes with grant support that has to be spent building a prototype: a product, a service, a process, a platform or a business model.
• Udaan, the Incubation Programme — you already have a minimum viable product, service, process or model that is ready to sell. Selection comes with a two-month workshop, mentorship, grant support and facilitation support.

If you are unsure, be honest about whether a customer could use what you have today. Applying to Udaan with a concept rather than a working product is the easiest way to be screened out.

How applications work

• PABI takes applications in numbered cohorts, not year round. The most recent published call was Cohort VIII, and its routes are closed.
• When a cohort opens, the call goes up on PABI's own news section with a separate application link for each route. Check there first rather than waiting to hear about it elsewhere.
• Recent calls used three route names — Student Orientation Program, Pre-Seed Stage Funding Program and Seed Stage Funding Program. Read the description on each link rather than assuming which one matches Uddam or Udaan.
• If nothing is open, write to pabi@pau.edu and ask when the next cohort is expected.
• PABI's site shows a browser security warning before it loads because its certificate has expired. The site is genuine — you will have to click through the warning.

What to put in front of them

PABI has never published its selection criteria, so use the incubator's own stated purpose as your guide. Its objectives are about getting new technology from the lab to the farm, creating rural employment in agriculture, and linking academia with industry and financial institutions.

• Make the agriculture link explicit. Every venture on its published lists works in farming, food, bee-keeping, agri machinery, agri inputs or allied processing.
• Show what a farmer or a rural buyer gets. "Lab to land" is PABI's own phrase for what it is trying to fund.
• For Udaan, evidence that the product is ready to commercialise matters more than polish — early sales, pilots, or a working unit in the field.
• For Uddam, be specific about the prototype the grant would pay for and what you would have at the end of it.

Be realistic about what is on offer

• PABI names no laboratory, workshop or co-working space of its own. If facilities matter to you, ask what access you would actually get before you commit.
• It does not say how long incubation lasts beyond the two-month workshop, and it does not state whether it charges a fee or takes equity. Ask both questions at the interview stage and get the answer in writing.
• Its published selection lists stop at Cohort V. Later cohorts have run without lists being published, so do not read the gap as the incubator being inactive.

Punjab Agri Business Incubator, usually shortened to PABI, is the agri-business incubator at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana. PAU was given the incubator in March 2019 under RKVY-RAFTAAR, the agri-business incubation component of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana run by the Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmer Welfare under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer's Welfare, Government of India. It backs founders building in agriculture and allied sectors.

How programmes work

PABI runs two named programmes, and its own pages describe them in a paragraph each rather than on dedicated programme pages.

Uddam is the Agripreneurship Orientation Programme. It is for people at the idea stage, and grant support on selection is meant to be spent turning that idea into a prototype — a product, a service, a process, a business platform or a business model. Udaan is the Incubation Programme. It is for start-ups that already have an innovative minimum viable product, service, business process or model ready for commercialisation, and it comes with a two-month workshop, mentorship, grant support on selection and what PABI calls facilitation support. The incubator does not say how long Udaan runs beyond that workshop, and it does not describe how it screens or shortlists applicants for either programme.

Intakes run as numbered cohorts rather than continuously. The most recent call on the site is for Cohort VIII, and it listed three separately linked routes by name: a Student Orientation Program, a Pre-Seed Stage Funding Program and a Seed Stage Funding Program. PABI has never published a mapping between those three names and the Uddam and Udaan pairing on its home page, so treat them as the same family of offers described two different ways. Every application route from that call is now closed, so a founder reading this today is between intakes and should watch for the next call.

Who can apply

Uddam is open to students, youth, smart farmers, women, or anyone with an innovative idea, in PABI's own words. Udaan is open to start-ups with an innovative minimum viable product or service ready for commercialisation. Beyond that, PABI states no restrictions at all: no incorporation requirement, no age limit, no Punjab residence rule, no requirement to be a PAU student or staff member, and no requirement to be recognised by DPIIT. Several companies on its published selection lists are marked as still having registration in process, so an unincorporated applicant has clearly been accepted before. That said, most selected ventures are private limited companies or LLPs.

Facilities

PABI names no laboratories, no co-working or incubation space, no pilot plant and no equipment anywhere on its site. If you need bench space or processing facilities, ask before you apply — the incubator sits on the PAU campus, but it makes no published offer of access to the university's facilities, and we would rather say so than assume it.

Scale

The incubator publishes named lists of selected founders and companies for Cohorts I to V only, the last of these labelled 2023-24. Those five pages name 79 ventures between them, 45 through the Udaan incubation route and 34 through Uddam. That is a floor, not a total: the latest call is for Cohort VIII, so at least three further intakes have been called with no list published. PABI itself publishes no headline count of startups supported, no jobs figure, no capital-raised figure and no survival rate. Its own news page carries three posts in total, two of them about individual portfolio companies — a trademark registration secured with PABI's support, and a selection into an external programme.

Who runs it

PABI's governing team are PAU academics. Dr. Tajinder Singh Riar, Additional Director Communication, is named as Principal Investigator, with Dr. Poonam A. Sachdev, Head of Food Science and Technology, and Dr. Mohit Gupta of the School of Business Studies as Co-Principal Investigators. Dr. Makhan Singh Bhullar, Director of Extension Education, is also listed on the governing team. Day to day the incubator is run by a small staff: a Business Manager, an Assistant Manager, a Business Executive and a Technical Assistant.

Locations and contact

PABI operates from Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, Punjab. It publishes no street address or building on its site, only a PAU switchboard range and the enquiry address pabi@pau.edu, which is where its own contact form delivers. It has no careers page and no events page. One practical warning: its website's security certificate has expired, so most browsers show a security warning before the site will load. The site behind that warning is live and current.

How to apply

There is no always-on application route. PABI announces a call on its own news page when a cohort opens, with one application link per programme on its application portal. Between calls, every link returns a notice that the form is closed. Watch the site's news section, or write to the enquiry address to ask when the next cohort opens.