Startup India I-STEM link: start-ups can now find 31,540 lab tools

India's Startup India portal has been linked to I-STEM, the national portal that lists research equipment at public institutions, so that recognised start-ups can find 31,540 research tools at 4,044 institutions from inside the Startup India site. The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) launched the link, called an API integration, on Friday, 6 November 2026, according to a government press release. Principal Scientific Adviser Ajay Kumar Sood chaired the launch, with DPIIT Additional Secretary Ateesh Kumar Singh. The link helps start-ups discover equipment; the institutions that own it will still approve each request for access.

Many young companies that build physical products, such as medical devices, new materials, electronics, drones or biotech, need costly machines to test and prove their work: microscopes, spectrometers, testing rigs and the like. Buying such equipment is costly for an early-stage company. Much of this equipment already exists in public research institutions and universities, paid for with public funds. I-STEM was built to list such facilities so that researchers could find and use them. The new link puts the same listings in front of start-ups through the portal they already use for government recognition and schemes.

For founders outside the big metros in particular, a searchable list of public facilities across thousands of institutions helps a founder find a machine at a nearby university or national laboratory rather than travel to a large city or import a test. Officials say the move should lower research and development costs for deep-tech start-ups and reduce the need to buy equipment that already exists in public labs.

The limits matter too. The link is for discovery: a start-up still has to apply to the institution, which decides whether, when and on what terms to give access. How quickly institutions answer, and what they charge, will decide how useful the link is in practice. The planned single sign-on phase, if delivered, would make the process smoother, but no timeline has been given in the reports.

Peepals calculation: The listings average about eight research tools per institution (31,540 ÷ 4,044 ≈ 7.8). The government has separately said there are more than 2.62 lakh DPIIT-recognised start-ups as of November 2026, which works out to about 65 recognised start-ups for every listed institution (2,62,000 ÷ 4,044 ≈ 64.8). Our calculation from the reported figures.

What a founder can do now: if your start-up is DPIIT-recognised and needs testing or research equipment, search the I-STEM listings through the Startup India portal, note the institutions nearest you, and send access requests early, since each institution approves requests on its own.

Short-term: Recognised start-ups can search public research equipment from the Startup India portal straight away.

Long-term: If institutions respond quickly and single sign-on follows, more start-ups could test and develop products using public labs rather than buying their own equipment, and public facilities could be used more fully.

Who is affected: DPIIT-recognised start-ups, especially in deep tech, hardware, life sciences and manufacturing; universities and research institutions that host the equipment; and incubators that help founders find testing facilities.

What to watch next: The single sign-on phase, which the government says will let start-ups use I-STEM facilities directly through the Startup India portal.

Questions and Answers