Technopark start-ups get DSIR funding

The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) has selected projects of two business incubation companies at the Thiruvananthapuram Technopark for funding.

Start-up companies Velozeta and Torque will receive funding under the DSIR's Technopreneurship Promotion Programme (TePP) for their projects developed under the Technopark's Technology Business Incubator (T-TBI).

While Velozeta gets an award of Rs 2 lakh, Torque has been awarded Rs 8 lakh, a Technopark spokesperson said. The two companies have been formed by students from College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.

While the funding will help Velozeta in developing its patented novel six-stroke internal combustion engine architecture, projected to double fuel efficiency and drastically reduce pollutant emissions compared to existing engines, Torque will develop 'Mobile Crime and Accident Reporting Platform' (MCARP).

Velozetta's project banks on a six-stroke technology that can be designed to run on different fuel types, including petrol, bio-diesel and ethanol, providing a platform that can compete in any segment of the $250-billion combustion engine market.

Meanwhile, Torque's MCARP aims at improving social security of the common man with the use of technology.

A Torque spokesperson said, "the lives of common citizens can be saved by improving response times in the case of accidents if images from the accident scene arrive at the control room. The MCARP proposal has already been cleared by the Kerala police for a pilot run in Kochi."

RK Nair, CEO, Technopark, said, "the Technopark Business Incubation Centre (T-BIC) and Technology Business Incubator have, during the past four years, been successful in creating an environment viable for development of technopreneurship in Kerala. The projects by the two startup companies prove this."