IIT Madras Global Research Foundation (IITM Global) has launched Bharat Ascend, a national innovation mission aimed at discovering high-potential ideas from tier-2, tier-3 cities and emerging innovation ecosystems and helping transform them into products, startups and globally scalable enterprises.
Launched in Delhi on August 28, the initiative is being led by IITM Global in partnership with Ideabaaz, a media-integrated startup platform. Bharat Ascend aims to identify 100 high-potential innovations in 365 days and create a structured pathway from ideation and validation to prototyping, customer acquisition, investment and international market access.
The initiative was welcomed by Jayant Chaudhary, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Minister of State for Education, Government of India, who said India’s next phase of growth would be driven not only by job seekers but also by entrepreneurs creating employment.
“India’s next chapter will be written not just by those who find jobs but by those who create them,” Chaudhary said in a message read out at the launch.
He said entrepreneurial potential was not confined to metropolitan centres and that Bharat Ascend would help ensure that young innovators in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities get an opportunity to build world-class products.
Democratising innovation
IIT Madras Director Prof. V. Kamakoti said the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047 would require India to become a Startup Bharat and a Product Bharat.
He said ideas could originate from any part of the country and that the country needed platforms capable of converting those ideas into products with socio-economic value.
“Bharat Ascend is that platform,” Kamakoti said, adding that IIT Madras Global Research Foundation would provide the knowledge ecosystem while Ideabaaz would help extend the initiative’s reach across the country.
As the strategic international arm of IIT Madras, IITM Global will bring the institution’s deep-tech expertise, academic and research capabilities, industry relationships and international networks to the initiative.
IIT Madras Dean (Global Engagement) Prof. Preeti Aghalayam said Bharat Ascend would create a bridge between local innovation and global opportunity.
The initiative, she said, would connect innovators with IIT Madras’ knowledge ecosystem, international networks, industry and markets, helping promising ideas move from Bharat to the world.
From ideas to global markets
Bharat Ascend is designed around measurable outcomes rather than simply identifying ideas.
IITM Global Chief Executive Officer and Director Thirumalai Madhavnarayan said the initiative would create a national pipeline from ideas to impact.
“Our focus will be on measurable outcomes, prototypes developed, pilots conducted, customers acquired, capital raised and innovations taken to global markets,” he said.
The programme will follow a five-stage journey, Discover, Nurture, Accelerate, Empower and Impact, taking innovators from ideation and validation through prototyping, pilots, investment, market entry and scale.
Bridging India’s access gap
The initiative is targeted at sectors including agriculture, healthcare, education, climate, mobility, manufacturing, energy, financial inclusion and emerging technologies.
Ideabaaz COO and Co-founder Mudit Kumar said India’s challenge was not a shortage of ideas but a gap in discovery and access.
“Bharat Ascend is designed to ensure that promising innovators are not overlooked simply because they come from outside the traditional startup hubs,” Kumar said.
He said Ideabaaz would use its reach across emerging innovation ecosystems to bring promising ideas into a national pipeline where mentorship, technology, market access and capital could help convert local ingenuity into globally relevant products and enterprises.
Madhavnarayan said the larger objective was to ensure that geography did not determine the destiny of an idea.
The mission seeks to create an ecosystem in which an innovator can identify an opportunity in a Tier-2 or Tier-3 city, build the product in India, find customers domestically and ultimately take the product to global markets.
Building a national innovation ecosystem
Bharat Ascend is also seeking participation from the wider innovation ecosystem.
Corporates can provide pilot opportunities, industry mentorship and first customers, while investors can identify and back ventures emerging from non-traditional startup geographies.
Universities and colleges can serve as discovery engines, while mentors, industry leaders and entrepreneurs can support innovators through the transition from idea to enterprise. Governments and local innovation ecosystems can also play a role in creating an enabling environment.
According to IITM Global, the initiative is intended to be more than a programme for 100 ideas. It is positioned as a potential scalable national model for identifying and developing entrepreneurial talent beyond India’s established startup hubs.