New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on Sunday said it has set up a ₹ 100-crore start-up fund to nurture new ideas related to the sector.

“The initiative, christened as ‘ONGC Start-up’, is in line with the Government of India’s ‘Start-up India’ initiative," the company said in a statement. As part of this initiative, ONGC will provide the entire support chain for start-ups including seed capital, hand-holding, mentoring market linkage and follow-ups.

“The aim of ‘ONGC Start-up’ is to increase the contribution of fresh implementable ideas in the oil and gas sector. ONGC is setting up a dedicated website to take this initiative forward," it said. ONGC chairman and managing director Dinesh K Sarraf said that this initiative will promote entrepreneurship among the young Indians by creating an ecosystem that is conducive for growth of startups in the oil and gas sector, which has a huge potential for technology-enabled ideas. The oil and gas sector, he said, is contributing enormously to the growth of economy.

Currently, the sector faces various critical challenges and new ideas are required to mitigate those challenges. To encourage its own employees innovate, ONGC also awarded its three young officers—Rajendra Bhambhu, Deepak Naik and Prajesh Chopra, for their innovative ideas. Bhambhu and Naik developed an innovative safety device for rigs that facilitates setting up of emergency brake to augment safety mechanism on drilling rigs.

Chopra innovated a unique Dual SIM Cellular Router System that provides data connectivity at work-over rigs. This system curtails the hassle of frequent dismantling and reinstallation during rig transportation, thus saving time and money.

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