GAIL and Petronet LNG Join Hands with IIT Hyderabad to Drive Digital Innovation in Energy Sector

GAIL (India) Limited, Petronet LNG Limited and the MC² Foundation, in association with the iTIC Incubator at IIT Hyderabad, organised the 'MC² Plus IGNITE Hyderabad Connect' at IIT Hyderabad, bringing together industry leaders, academia, startups and technology experts to explore innovation opportunities in the energy sector. The MC² Plus energy innovation accelerator, backed by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, aims to support 30 early-stage startups with funding of up to Rs 1.5 crore, mentorship and pilot opportunities across seven focus areas including digital asset management, AI-driven subsurface intelligence, next-generation drilling and well completion, refinery process technology, compressed biogas, hydrogen and mobility. The Hyderabad edition focused specifically on digital asset management. GAIL Chairman and Managing Director Deepak Gupta said the programme is intended to help move technologies from the research stage towards commercial use, bringing together startups, academia, research institutions and the oil and gas industry on a common platform. He outlined five imperatives for the energy sector — efficiency, technology self-reliance, net-zero, self-sustaining energy systems and technological self-reliance — and called for innovation to be made, invented and deployed within India. Petronet LNG Managing Director and CEO Akshay Kumar Singh highlighted potential areas for startups to work with the LNG industry, including commercial use of cold energy generated during the regasification process, which could serve sectors such as data centres, cold storage and air separation units. He also pointed to scope for improving compressed biogas yields. The event featured a keynote from Dr Anil K Khandelwal, former CMD of Bank of Baroda, along with sessions from IIT Hyderabad and the Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry on upcoming energy startup initiatives.