IIT Madras incubation cell and RBI innovation hub come together to nurture financial inclusion

CHENNAI: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras incubation cell on Thursday announced signing a memorandum of understanding with RBI innovation hub, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reserve Bank of India, to develop the ecosystem necessary to support and scale financial technology start-ups in the country.

The two entities, under the association, would jointly provide incubation support and nurture start-ups with innovative solutions and help accelerate the companies to grow. According to a release, select start-ups would be considered from time to time by RBI Innovation Hub for co-incubation and thereby receive strategic and operational guidance, training and mentoring sessions under RBI Innovation Hub leadership and domain experts.

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"RBI Innovation Hub aims to foster and evangelize innovation across the financial ecosystem. The start-up ecosystem in India makes a significant contribution to economic prosperity of the nation", RBI Innovation Hub, CEO, Rajesh Bansal said. "Through such incubation partnership we intend to build a robust environment conducive to growth of fintech start-ups in the nation", he said.

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The MoU also allows the IITM Incubation Cell and RBI Innovation Hub to collaborate on projects including policy whitepapers, research papers among others. IIT Madras Research Park and IIT Madras Incubation Cell President professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala said, "India is a country where we continue to see large economic disparity. To solve this challenge, we need to work towards financial inclusion in ensuring inclusive economic development for all". "This collaboration with RBI Innovation Hub is a positive step forward in this direction. With advances in financial technology and digital transactions, we look forward to work along with more start-ups to make financial inclusion simpler to achieve", he said.