The company said it has opened a fresh round for solicitation of investment proposals from the startups operating in focus areas, which include natural gas, petrochemicals, energy, project management, bio-manure marketing, nano materials, IoT, data mining, environment, health and social.

Last July, Gail had opened bids soliciting investment proposals from startups operating in the area of compressed bio-gas (CBG).

India has vast biomass resources, and the government has been focussing on its utilisation by encouraging setting up of CBG plants.

Gail had launched ‘Pankh’ in July 2017 to invest in promising startups. So far, the company has invested in 24 startups, operating in various areas through four solicitation rounds.