January 16, 2026: Pernod Ricard India Foundation (PRIF), the CSR arm of Pernod Ricard India, is strengthening India’s circular economy and climate innovation ecosystem through its Social Innovation and Transformation vertical with three flagship incubation programs — Prakriti Incubation Launchpad with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, Circular Economy Incubator with NSRCEL–IIM Bangalore, and ADVAYA–Plastic Circularity Innovation Launchpad with SIIC–IIT Kanpur. So far, these ongoing programs have supported 75+ startups, diverted over 4.6 lakh kilograms of plastic and 94,780 kgs of agri-waste from landfills, and created more than 400+ sustainable livelihoods across the country.
This initiative reflects Pernod Ricard India Foundation’s (PRIF) commitment to accelerating climate-smart, inclusive, and regionally anchored innovation under its Social Innovation and Transformation vertical. This is an important thematic area for PRIF as India is the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. With agriculture still contributing significantly to the economy, there is a pressing need to help farmers adapt and mitigate climate threats. Yet, despite more than 100 government-recognized incubators, few Indian startups focus on green innovation, with minimal representation from underserved regions such as the North-East and rural India. PRIF’s incubation programs are designed to bridge this gap by equipping early-stage ventures with structured incubation, technical mentorship, networking, funding access, and scale-up opportunities, aligned with India’s net-zero vision and circular economy roadmap.
Gagandeep Sethi, Senior Vice President – Integrated Operations and Sustainability & Responsibility, Pernod Ricard India, said: “At Pernod Ricard India Foundation, our vision is to make sustainability and innovation work hand in hand. By collaborating with India’s leading academic institutions, we’re enabling entrepreneurs to turn challenges like waste and resource scarcity into opportunities for innovation, employment, and impact. These incubation platforms are not only nurturing green startups but also helping build a national pipeline of scalable, climate-smart solutions that can deliver true triple-bottom-line impact. Our efforts are aimed at strengthening India’s position as a leader in circular entrepreneurship and inclusive, sustainable growth.”
Highlights of the three circular economy incubation programs:
- Prakriti Incubation Launchpad in partnership with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park
Aims to cultivate a thriving green entrepreneurship ecosystem in North-East India by nurturing high- impact scalable enterprises rooted in circularity and indigenous knowledge. Start-ups are trained on incubation, capacity-building, and fund management. They are capacitated on networking, funding raising and marketing through curated mentorship sessions and real world business applicability. The ventures focus on sustainable packaging, waste processing, local alternatives to plastic, and enabling traditional and regional products. The project onboarded 12 early-stage green startups and community-led enterprises In Cohort 1. The cohort focuses on a 10-month comprehensive incubation programme with networking and mentorship, and up to INR 20 lakh in grant funding per venture
- Circular Economy Incubator in partnership with NSRCEL–IIM Bangalore
Focuses on scaling impact-led startups in plastic & glass circularity, and climate smart griculture, alternative materials & waste management. Launched in 2023, the partnership has successfully supported 46 ventures in last two cohorts. Across two-cohorts, the incubated ventures secured follow on funding of 42.6 cr, reported 65% increase in revenue and generate 400+ direct livelihoods. Notably, 50% of incubated ventures are led or co-led by women entrepreneurs. Over 4.6 lakh kgs of plastic waste recycled/diverted from going to landfills and 94,780 kgs of agri-waste recycled so far.
- ADVAYA Plastic Circularity Innovation Launchpad in partnership with Startup Incubation & Innovation (SIIC) – IIT Kanpur
Focuses on deep-tech early-stage innovation in plastic circularity and alternative materials and provides tech-first scalable solutions along with access to FIRST- IIT-Kanpur mentorship, infrastructure, labs, networking with research departments and institutions like CIPET. There is a special focus on helping startups to move across Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) and advance closer to market deployment12-month incubation planned across 2 successive cohorts and milestone-based grants. Targeting 5 new technologies/startups to progress at least 1-2 TRLs in Cohort 1 for 2025-2026.
