Nine student teams from across India faced off in the National Finals of the National Student Case Competition 2026, hosted by the Center for Digital Public Goods (CDPG), IIM Bangalore, with the support of Perfios and Anumati Account Aggregator, on 30^th September 2026. Bringing together students from engineering, technology, management, public policy and finance domains, the finals put the spotlight on how India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) can be designed, governed and built to create meaningful public value.

The Center for Digital Public Goods (CDPG) at IIM Bangalore released the second edition of the ‘State of DPI in India 2026’ report at the Annual Policy Conclave, organized by CDPG in partnership with eGov Foundation, at IIM Bangalore. The report was unveiled by Mr. V Easwaran, COO, Protean eGov Technologies, Mr. Viraj Tyagi, CEO, eGov Foundation, and Dr. R Srinivasan, Chairperson, CDPG and faculty of the Strategy area at IIMB.

To read the full report, please click here.

The Venture Showcase, held as part of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, brought together 33 women entrepreneurs representing ventures spanning domains including Waste Management, Feed industry, Healthcare and Wellness, Semiconductors, Luxury Retail & eCommerce, Food & Beverages, Handicrafts, FinTech, Interior Design, and more.

Initiatives like this help enable strong strategic and operational capabilities among the cohorts, driving them further ahead on their journey as business leaders.

As part of the Circular Innovation Incubation Program, an initiative by Pernod Ricard India Foundation in partnership with NSRCEL, founders and the wider start-up and MSME ecosystem in Jaipur were brought together for a dialogue.

The conversation explored what it takes to build and scale climate and circular economy ventures – from identifying commercial opportunities and achieving market adoption to navigating government support and ecosystem networks.

For founders in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, opportunities to access the right networks, mentorship and support could be a key enabler in taking locally built solutions to larger markets. The program creates a platform for founders building in circularity and climate innovation to access equity-free grant opportunities, mentorship, and government, corporate and ecosystem networks.

As part of Velocity – Kotak BizLabs Accelerator Programme, a CSR initiative by Kotak Mahindra Bank, NSRCEL hosted a workshop for hardware founders, in Coimbatore. The workshop aimed at addressing what it really takes to move from a working prototype to a market-ready product.

Through this conversation, hardware founders explored insights on the journey beyond building the technology and learnt why customer validation must come before product development.

The session covered few key lessons, including, the need to start with the problem, not the technology and validate a real customer need before building; to understand the customer and identify the user, buyer, pain point, alternatives, and urgency; to focus on customer discovery as well as ask open-ended questions and listen before pitching, and to validate before building and test assumptions with real customers through experiments and MVPs.

The valuable lesson learnt was – the path from prototype to market is not just about making the technology work. It is about proving that it solves a real problem, for the right customer, in a way they are willing to pay for.

The applications for Velocity – Kotak BizLabs are currently open. To learn more and apply, please visit: https://nsrcel.org/velocity/

As part of the Healthcare Incubation Program, a CSR Initiative by DailyRounds, NSRCEL hosted a Demo Day and Corporate Venture Showcase, bringing together ventures from across the prototype, MVP, pilot and early-revenue stages, innovating across domains spanning biotechnology, medical devices, healthcare services, healthcare technology, health & wellness, and assistive technology.

At Demo Day, founders had a platform to showcase their solutions and connect with investors. Altogether 82 meetings were hosted throughout the day, aimed at helping the start-ups explore opportunities for funding, partnerships and growth.

At the Corporate Venture Showcase, also held as part of the Industry Innovation Connect initiative at NSRCEL, corporates and hospitals were featured, including Siemens Healthineers, Samyak, Apollo ProHealth, HCG, BFI, Kavach, Bigtech Labs and Superhealth.

The venture showcase created opportunities for founders to demonstrate their solutions, engage with potential partners, and explore pilots, enterprise adoption and long-term collaboration.

The Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management (PGPPM) at IIM Bangalore hosted a two-day edition of its annual PGPPM Policy Talk Series on 24^th and 25^th September 2026. The series brings together practitioners from governance, education, industry and public policy to engage with the PGPPM cohort on contemporary policy challenges and the practical dimensions of policy implementation.

The series opened on 24^th September with a Governance Masterclass by Shailiza Mayal, Vice President, Samagra. Her session explored what it takes to translate policy intent into effective implementation and to build public systems that deliver at scale.

The session on Day Two featured Akshay Saxena, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Avanti Fellows. His talk, titled ‘Talent is Everywhere, Opportunity is Not: Can Public Policy Create Real Educational Mobility?’, examined educational opportunity and equity, and the role public policy can play in creating pathways for high-potential students from underserved communities.

The Supply Chain Management Centre (SCMC), in association with Gurobi and DecisionOpt, hosted a special program on ‘Agentic AI for Optimization’ on 26^th September 2026.

The Centre for Software and Information Technology Management (CSITM) hosted a session on ‘Leadership in the Agentic Economy’, led by Katja Forbes, author of Machine Customers: The Evolution Has Begun and an Advisor to Forrester on Agentic Commerce. The session was held on 29^th September 2026.

With the core objective of shaping the vision, possibilities and priorities for the next era of mobility, the IIMB Alumni Association (IIMBAA) Bangalore Chapter, through its Mobility Special Interest Group (SIG), hosted the 5th edition of the Global Mobility Summit on 26^th September 2026 at the IIMB Auditorium. The Global Mobility Summit 2026, themed on ‘MOBILITY 2.0 – Gearing for Transformation’, brought together more than 200 CXOs, mobility and automotive leaders, policymakers, as well as representatives from technology companies, start-ups, academia and the wider mobility ecosystem. This year’s theme reflected the shift from traditional mobility towards software-defined, intelligent, connected, electrified and sustainable ecosystems.