Bengaluru, Oct 19 (IANS) By providing technology and tools, chip maker Intel Corporation mentored 17 Indian start-ups to innovate products in diverse areas, said the US-based company on Wednesday. (21:10)

"Of the 17 start-ups which utilised our laboratory facilities here, nine have launched products in the market and five have products ready for customer trials, while three are at the design stage," Intel India General Manager Nivruti Rai told reporters here.

Intel's Indian subsidiary has set up the Maker Lab at its campus in this tech hub in January to help start-ups accelerate their hardware and systems for innovating products and solutions using its infrastructure, technology, tools and mentorship support.

"The start-ups used the lab for projects spanning education, sports, health, agriculture, BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), and e-governance across IoT (Internet of Things), cloud and client compute," said Rai.

The lab also supported seven start-ups incubated by the Science and Technology Department of the Indian government under the Intel's 'Innovate for Digital India' challenge.

"We are focused on innovation, systems design and entrepreneurship in India. With 15 years of commitment to research and development, we continue to build a community of innovators across the country," Rai added.

As a catalyst, Intel has associated with various programmes to foster innovation and making the government's Digital India vision a reality.

"It's heartening to see many products and solutions being developed by the hardware and systems start-ups using our lab as their innovations will help solve consumer and business needs and contribute to Digital India and Make in India vision," said Intel India Director Jitendra Chadda on the occasion.

The company is collaborating with the government to encourage entrepreneurial and innovation talent as a not-for-profit initiative and is independent of its own research and development activities in India.