N S Vishwanathan, Former Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Public Policy (CPP) at IIM Bangalore, has been appointed as a Member of the Government of India’s newly constituted High Level Committee on Banking for Viksit Bharat.

Announced by the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs in the Union Budget 2026-27, the six-member committee will undertake a comprehensive review of India’s banking sector and recommend structural, institutional, regulatory and legislative reforms to strengthen the sector in alignment with the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.

NSRCEL brought together its mentors in Mumbai for an evening of conversations, reflections and connections. The meet-up featured mentors Brijnandan Mundhra, Manas Rath, Mridul Mehta, Ankkush Agarwal, Girish Mehta and Rasesh Shah.

Also joining were Mahima Dani and Jinal Gala, Co-founders, Synergy, India, that aims to build a patient-care ecosystem bringing together experts across disciplines to deliver personalized care beyond symptomatic relief. The meet also included Kuldeep Pawar, Founder, Saventh, a start-up of NSRCEL focused on building a personal finance platform for employees across India, making financial literacy and informed money decisions simpler and more accessible.

At the Fintech Clinic as part of the FinTech Centre of Excellence, an initiative of NSRCEL in partnership with the Government of Karnataka, founders engaged with regulators, industry experts, CIOs and CDOs through focused, one-on-one closed-door discussions to explore challenges, gain actionable insights as well as discover opportunities for growth. The clinic featured 13 start-ups, 15 experts and over 50 meetings.

Sahil Kini, CEO, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH), shared insights from his entrepreneurial journey – the importance of market timing and building strong teams, and emerging opportunities in India’s digital public infrastructure, AI-driven financial services as well as digital lending.

Pramod Rao, Former Executive Director, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), offered perspectives on how fintech founders can engage with regulators, navigate compliance requirements, build partnerships with financial institutions and bring innovative solutions to market.

From navigating regulatory complexities to unlocking enterprise partnerships, the clinic brought founders closer to the insights, expertise and connections.

IIT Kanpur and NSRCEL have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to support the development and commercialization of deep-tech ventures, with an initial focus on defence, aerospace and allied sectors.

The collaboration will support IIT Kanpur’s SCALE Catapult initiative, combining technical expertise and research infrastructure with venture development, market validation and business-building support. The partnership will also explore joint incubation and acceleration programmes, co-incubation opportunities and industry engagement.

As part of the Velocity – Kotak BizLabs Accelerator Programme, a CSR initiative by Kotak Mahindra Bank in partnership with NSRCEL, the Centre hosted the ‘From Lab to Venture Scale: Building and Scaling Hardware Startups’ event.

Featuring Kaustubh Patekar, Founder, ProdZen and Head of Products, Biome, the session explored how hardware start-ups can translate complex technologies into commercially viable solutions and build pathways to scale.

The discussion also covered channel partnerships, market-led pivots, access to labs and manufacturing facilities, and incubator networks as enablers of customer adoption and business growth.

NSRCEL has partnered with the District Administration, Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, as Knowledge and Advisory Partner for the Nalanda Project, run under the Nalanda Prabandhan Sewa Samiti, Chhattisgarh. The MoU was signed at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore by Mayank Chaturvedi, District Magistrate, Raigarh and Rasika Prashant, CEO, NSRCEL, marking the launch of the collaboration.

The Nalanda Project will be built around four initiatives, namely, the Startup Incubation Centre, AI and Makers Lab, STEM Lab and Career Counselling Centres.

The signing was also a chance for start-ups from NSRCEL’s programs to meet the Raigarh team and discuss how they could engage with the district.

NSRCEL and Maruti Suzuki India Limited have renewed their partnership for another three years, extending a collaboration that has been creating pathways for start-ups to move from innovation to real-world industry application.

Over the last couple of years, the partnership has engaged over 𝟭𝟲𝟬 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁-𝘂𝗽𝘀, enabled 𝟮𝟲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁-𝘂𝗽s to undertake 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁 with Maruti Suzuki, supported 𝟭𝟮 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁-𝘂𝗽𝘀 in progressing from PoCs to business partnerships with Maruti Suzuki, contributed to the creation of more than 𝟯,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗷𝗼𝗯𝘀 by entrepreneurs, and enabled start-ups to 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲 over ₹𝟭,𝟮𝟬𝟬 crores 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴.

The numbers reflect more than start-up support. They represent ideas being tested against real industry needs, technologies being validated in live environments and start-ups moving closer to market adoption. The venture is set to contribute a lot more towards innovation, validation and industry collaboration in the next three years.

NSRCEL kickstarted Cohort 17 of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, a cohort that brings together 71 founders across diverse sectors, including manufacturing, food & beverage, healthcare, education, sustainability, professional services, agriculture/agritech and automotives.

The cohort interacted with Dr. Sourav Mukherji and Dr. Ramya K Murthy of the Entrepreneurship area of IIM Bangalore.

During the induction, also present were Abhishek Parsheera, Managing Director and General Counsel, Goldman Sachs India and Smita Modi, India Lead, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, who spoke to the cohort about the community and opportunities that lie ahead.

NSRCEL, in partnership with nasscom ai, hosted the ‘Enterprise AI Clinic’ as part of the Nasscom’s Agentic AI Confluence, bringing AI start-ups and enterprise leaders together for focused, high-impact conversations.

The clinic is a part of Kotak BizLabs Accelerator Programme, a CSR initiative by Kotak Mahindra Bank, in partnership with NSRCEL that brought together 14 AI start-ups working across Data Infrastructure, Engineering and Security with 10 enterprise leaders for 30-minute 1-on-1 conversations focused on enterprise needs, opportunities as well as AI adoption.

Velocity – Kotak BizLabs Accelerator Programme Season 2 Demo Day by NSRCEL brought founders, investors and the start-up ecosystem together for two days of pitching, learning, meaningful conversations and networking.

Start-up founders joined an immersive session with Vijay Vikram Singh, the voice of Bigg Boss and an actor known for shows and films such as The Family Man, Mirzapur, Farzi, Chhaava, War 2 and Taskaree, among others.

The session focused on sharpening founder pitches, strengthening storytelling and communicating ideas with greater impact. Start-ups also took the stage to pitch to investors, resulting in 108 founder-investor meetings, bringing together 17 founders and 17 investors for focused conversations around businesses, markets and growth opportunities.