Hyderabad-based innovation hub T-Hub on Friday announced a partnership with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to lead Digital India's Scale Up programme for hardware and Internet of Things (IoT) startups across India. As many as 10-15 startups with leading-edge solutions in mobility, energy, agriculture, aerospace, manufacturing, consumer, healthtech, medtech, smart cities and logistics and supply chain sectors will be shortlisted as part of the programme, T-Hub said in a statement.

The call for application for the programme will commence in July. Startups will be shortlisted from hundreds of applications after an extensive screening process, T-Hub added. "India has already developed a reputation for its expertise in the software technology space. We are beginning to see startups emerging in the hardware space that are solving important problems," said Ravi Narayan, CEO of T-Hub and Telangana Chief Innovation Officer.

"T-Hub brings its matured acceleration programme with access to customers, investors and specialized mentors," he added. The batch of startups will go through regular interventions through bootcamps and dedicated mentoring organised by T-Hub. During the programme, startups will get exposure to design/enhance their hardware. In addition, they will receive mentorship in areas such as pricing, go-to-market strategies, fund raising, among others.

As part of the programme, the shortlisted startups will also receive equity-free grants, T-Hub said. "It is important for us to engage the startup community and bring innovative thinking into product development that can accelerate the creation of new offerings in the hardware space," said Ajai Garg, CEO of MeitY Startup Hub.