Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], August 20 : Dr. Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) along with the CMDs of all Oil & Gas companies and the Chairman, bp India, launched MC²+ Ignite at IIT Madras on August 19.
With the vision and drive of MoPNG, MC² Foundation has come up strongly in a very short period of time with the launch of MC²+ Ignite. The coming together of all the CMDs itself shows how deeply MoPNG is invested in this initiative.

Addressing the gathering at IIT Madras during the launch function, Dr. Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, MoPNG, and Chairman, MC² Foundation, said that MC² Foundation was set up to pool the technology problem statements of India's oil and gas energy majors onto a single platform, connect them directly to academic research and start-ups, and back the resulting ventures to global scale.
Explaining the need, the Chairman pointed to the fragmentation the Foundation was created to end , "Several of our companies can be working on the very same catalyst at the same time. That is duplication of work, of investment and of bureaucracy, and it comes with no direct interface to the institutions where the research is actually happening."
The stakes, he said, are foundational , "If there is no energy, there is no life, no economy, no business, no food and no water." He was clear that the ambition must extend beyond the domestic market . We cannot become a Viksit Bharat by focusing on the Indian market alone. We have to produce at a global scale that is how costs come down."
Addressing the founders present, he committed MC² to the full journey,"We will be with you through the entire cycle -- mentorship that is both technical and managerial, help with funds, and the visibility that a PSU will procure your product when it is ready. You should not have to worry about whether a market exists."
The event was also marked by the presence of Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman & CEO, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC); Dr. Ranjit Rath Chairman & Managing Director, Oil India Limited (OIL); A. S. Sahney, Chairman, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL); Sanjay Khanna, Chairman & Managing Director, BPCL; Director, MC² Foundation; Vikas Kaushal, Chairman & Managing Director, HPCL; Director, MC² Foundation; Atul Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director, Engineers India Limited (EIL), Dr. Madhukar Garg
Former President, R&D - Refining and Petrochemicals, Reliance Industries Limited; Kartikeya Dube, Chairman, bp India and Sandeep Maheshwari, CEO, MC² Foundation.
MC²+ promises to be a unique accelerator programme, with a first-of-its-kind decentralised acceleration and innovation platform having its hub in Delhi and nodes at various sponsoring companies in the Indian oil & gas sector, inside their R&D centres, to provide access to real pilot sites. MC²+ has partnered with premier institutions, including IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, C-CAMP and Venture Center, Pune, to create an ecosystem affording the incubated startups the flexibility of accessing infrastructure, lab facilities and mentoring capabilities across India.
MC²+ Ignite will select a cohort of approximately 30 startups. Selected startups will be eligible for up to ₹2 crore in milestone-linked convertible funding.
The programme addresses a critical gap for Indian deep-tech and energy startups. While early-stage grant funding is easy to come by, startups face challenges in accessing operating assets, pilot sites, industry customers and growth capital. MC²+ Ignite aims to bridge this gap by bringing together capital, infrastructure, technical expertise and industry access within a structured cohort.
Applications for the inaugural cohort opened on August 5 and close on August 31. The 30 selected startups will be announced on 15 September 2026. Startups can apply at www.mc2plus.in.
MC² Foundation is building India's energy innovation platform to equip startups, researchers and innovators working across energy and industrial deep-tech with access to the capital, infrastructure, expertise, pilot opportunities and commercial pathways required to scale.
By bringing together research institutions, industry partners, energy majors and innovators, MC²+ aims to help promising technologies move from research and development towards real-world deployment and commercialisation.