Ratan Tata, Professor Ashutosh Sharma, and George Standridge will roll out the newly revamped India Innovation Growth Programme 2.0 at the Festival of Innovation at the Rashtrapati Bhavan tomorrow, giving impetus to social and industrial innovations in India
New Delhi: Mr. Ratan N. Tata, Chairman, Tata Trusts, Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, and Mr. George Strandridge, Vice President, Business Development, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, will roll out the India Innovation Growth Programme 2.0 (IIGP 2.0) at the Rashtrapati Bhavan lawns tomorrow. This announcement, to extend and expand the India Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP) for three additional years from 2017 to 2019, will be made at the closing session of the week-long Festival of Innovation.
Tata Trusts has joined the newly revamped India Innovation Growth Programme 2.0 (IIGP 2.0) along with founding stakeholders the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and global security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin, with a focus on innovations addressing socio-economic challenges.
The IIGP 2.0 is the only public-private partnership of its kind that will invest in social and industrial innovations, train innovators in world-class commercialization strategies, offer support for incubation and assist in business development, ultimately taking ideas and Indian technologies into the global marketplace.
The programme will enable entrepreneurs to develop science and technology-based solutions for the benefit of the society. Select innovators across social and industrial sectors will have the opportunity to accelerate their proof of concepts to a sustainable product or service and to contribute to Government of India’s evolving industrial strategy and new focus on the “Start-Up India” initiative.
Speaking about the programme, Mr. Harkesh Mittal, Programme Head of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Tech. Commercialization, Department Science & Technology, Government of India, said, “DST is at the forefront of promoting Science, Technology and innovation in India and is actively engaged with the private sector to take the ideas, innovations & technologies to market. India Innovation Growth Programme Version 2.0 is an outcome of the decade long experience that a unique industry academia and government partnership had implemented in India. Encouraged by the success of taking 500 innovations to market and helping them capture local and global market value of approximately Rs. 6000 crores. We now in the new version hope to achieve an even better success not only in financial numbers but also improve lives of people at the base of the pyramid with our well known and worthy new partners like Tata Trusts, IIMA, MIT, IITB and old and valued partners like Lockheed Martin, FICCI and IUSSTF.”
Speaking about the partnership, Manoj Kumar, Head – Innovations, Tata Trusts, said “We are pleased to partner with Department of Science and technology and Lockheed Martin as we further reinforce our commitment to promoting socially relevant innovations and entrepreneurship. Under IIGP2.0 we will search for innovators who are on a mission to fight poverty and underdevelopment. Through our incubation programmes, selected innovators will be able to access the resources they need to create high quality, commercially-viable, accessible and affordable solutions for social impact.”
Commenting on the partnership, George Standridge, Vice President, Business Development, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, said, “The India Innovation Growth Programme is a key element of Lockheed Martin’s longstanding commitment to India. The ingenuity in India that we have observed as part of this programme since first launched is proof that the real power lies in what we can do together. Working together, we have the innovation, the technology, and the commitment to accomplish great things.”
Other new programme partners include, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B). IIGP 2.0 includes several new components including the University Challenge in addition to the Open Innovation Challenge.
Innovators from across the country with breakthrough ideas and demonstrable proof of concepts having either a social or industrial impact are encouraged to participate in IIGP 2.0. Some of the sectors include aeronautics, agriculture, biotechnology, chemistry, communications, computing, defence, electronics, environment, healthcare, information technology, manufacturing, materials, life sciences, nanotechnology, petrochemical, semiconductors and transportation.
The programme invites fresh application from innovators to submit technological solutions that have a social and economic impact. They will be evaluated and ranked by a joint team comprising all program partners. Predefined parameters include development status, India-centricity, maturity of the idea, social impact, funding required for technology development, and other elements. Selected innovators will receive advanced training from leading academia in basic principles of product commercialization, readiness for market, business models, IP rights, competitive positioning, and mechanisms for revenue. Additional benefits to look forward to are training in technology commercialization strategies and entrepreneurship; analysis of commercial potential of their technology; professional business development assistance, and access to US and global investor markets.
About Department of Science and Technology (DST)
Department of Science and Technology (DST) plays a pioneering role in driving the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) development across various domains all over the country. DST has a multipronged approach and multifarious initiatives and activities, spanning from funding high-end basic and cutting edge research and technology development of excellence, to translation of innovation and scientific outputs to market through incubators and startup promotion. DST also focuses on inclusive growth and empowerment of society by deploying appropriate technologies of societal relevance. DST has established nearly 110 technology business incubators at Institutions of excellence including IITs, IIMs, NITs, and leading private universities. DST has recently rolled out a new umbrella initiative NIDHI i.e National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations under Prime Minister’s National Initiative of Startup India to facilitate conversion of innovative ideas to startups. DST is actively involved in transforming the Indian innovation landscape by engaging new models of Public- Private Partnerships with leading MNCs i.e. Intel, Bennett Coleman and Co, Boeing, Lockheed Martin Corp, Texas Instruments, Tatas among others.