Tagore Centre for Green Technology Business Incubation

Check the gate before you apply

• TCGTBI's policy names faculty, students and alumni of IIEST Shibpur, and the institute's research partners. Other pages also welcome outside technology founders, so write to the office and ask if you are not connected to the institute.
• You do not need a registered company at the start, but you must register one within three months of approval.

How the application works

• Start with the Pre-Application Questionnaire. It asks about your product, IP, market, competitors, team, two-year cash flow and risks, and why you want to locate at TCGTBI.
• If it passes the first scrutiny, you submit a formal application with a business plan and details of your IP or technology.
• If the technology came out of IIEST Shibpur, get the institute's approval letter for transfer, licensing or permission to use it before you apply.
• There is no published intake date. Applications are handled on a rolling basis.

What reviewers look at

• How strong the product idea is in technology, innovation, timeliness and market potential.
• The IP you already have and the potential to create more.
• How far IIEST Shibpur faculty, staff and students are involved.
• The strength of the core team.
• How much funding you need and whether you can raise it.
• Your break-even period.

Know the terms

• The first stay is 36 months, with a possible extension of up to 24 months.
• Expect a monthly facilities charge, and a 10% equity holding for TCGTBI. Read the draft agreement for your category before you commit.
• A seed loan is not automatic and depends on funds being available.

Contact

• Write to gm.tcgtbi@iiests.ac.in. The site gives no application portal, so confirm the current process with the office.

Tagore Centre for Green Technology Business Incubation (TCGTBI) is a business incubator at the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur (IIEST Shibpur), in Howrah, West Bengal. It is run by a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and turns technology ideas from science and engineering into products, processes and services. Its stated focus is green and sustainable technology, and it also describes itself as technology agnostic and open to technology-based startups and innovators.

Who it is for

TCGTBI is a campus-linked incubator, so check the gate first. Its admission policy opens the incubator to current and recent faculty members, to students and alumni of IIEST Shibpur, and to the institute's research and consultancy partners where a faculty member is an advisor, mentor or promoter. A separate page on who can incubate adds a fourth group, others with an entrepreneurial mindset and an innovation orientation, and the home page says the incubator is open to all technology-based startups. The policy document is narrower than those pages, so an outside founder should ask the office before preparing a full application.

Proposals are judged on parameters such as IP created at IIEST or owned by a faculty member, student or alumnus, strong involvement of IIEST faculty, social and strategic impact, and potential for large resource generation. You do not need a registered company to apply. An application can go in the names of all the promoters, but the company must be registered within three months of approval.

How admission works

There is no dated call or cohort. You start with a Pre-Application Questionnaire, which you collect from the TCGTBI office or download from the website. The team scrutinises it, and if the answer is positive you submit a formal application with a business plan and details of the IP or technology behind the company. If the technology was developed at IIEST Shibpur, you also need the institute's approval letter for transfer, licensing or permission to use it.

Expert members from outside the TCGTBI staff then review the plan, including financial and technical due diligence. You may be invited to present. The policy says TCGTBI decides at its sole discretion and need not give reasons for a rejection. If you are admitted, a draft agreement is sent, with separate templates for students and general applicants, with or without a company.

What incubation involves

Incubates stay for 36 months to begin with, and TCGTBI can extend a stay by up to another 24 months. It is not free. The policy describes a discounted monthly facilities charge for the physical space, and a 10% equity holding for TCGTBI in return for infrastructure and for the right to use IP developed at IIEST. The policy notes these terms can change. A seed loan may be available only when funds or schemes exist for it, only for registered companies, and admission does not entitle you to one.

Incubates get company-specific office space and an internet connection, plus shared facilities: a conference room with projection equipment, printing and scanning, a library and a pantry. TCGTBI also describes dedicated air-conditioned cubicles with LAN and wifi, a workshop and seminar space, a shared capital equipment facility and a product display area. Access to departmental laboratories at IIEST Shibpur is facilitated, subject to the institute's rules, the department's permission and fees.

Support covers mentoring from a pool of experts, IP facilitation for patents, trademarks and designs, technology transfer support, business development seminars, and training. Companies report to TCGTBI every quarter and can be assessed annually by external experts. They are expected to leave when they raise substantial investment, finish their stay, outgrow the policy's limits on staff or revenue, or fall short on performance.

Track record

TCGTBI's own incubates list names 4, 9, 9 and 5 startups registered in 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19, and 8 present incubates registered in 2022-23 and 2023-24. The list is undated. Another document uploaded in 2024 lists a different, longer set of current incubates, so treat the counts as self-reported and not as a current total. Named incubates include Addauto Technology, Creatron Technologies, Ecobeton Readymix, Pansimtech, Savetur Digital, Medicogent and Resolz Power.

Between 2022 and 2023 the centre listed events such as the Scintillations innovation event, eWoke entrepreneurship days, an IGNITE pre-incubation programme with the National Entrepreneurship Network, idea-scouting sessions with STEP at IIT Kharagpur, and sessions on IP, funding and startup planning.

Who runs it

The managing committee includes IIEST Shibpur's director, registrar and deans, industry members, and the managing director of STEP at IIT Kharagpur. The Secretary is a professor and head of the Department of Human Resource Management at IIEST Shibpur, and there is a General Manager for day-to-day contact. On its letterhead the centre describes itself as a project sponsored by the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board and DST, Government of India.

Location and contact

The centre is at IIEST Shibpur, P.O. Botanic Garden, Howrah, West Bengal 711103. Write to the General Manager's office at gm.tcgtbi@iiests.ac.in. IIEST Shibpur was formerly Bengal Engineering College, a name some founders still search for.