India Innovation Growth Programme 2.0 top winners announced

The winners from the University Challenge and Open Innovation Challenge of the India Innovation Growth Programme 2.0 (IIGP 2.0) were announced in New Delhi today. Over 1300 applications for innovative ideas across social and industrial sectors were received.

From the more than 1300 applications, 50 innovators were invited to participate in a week-long advanced training session covering the basic principles of product commercialization, readiness for market, business models, intellectual property rights and competitive positioning by faculty members from the Indian Institute of Ahmedabad (IIM- A).

The India Innovation Growth Programme 2.0 (IIGP 2.0) made up of Tata Trusts along with founding stakeholders the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and global security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin, display a renewed focus on innovations addressing socio-economic challenges.

The newly enhanced programme is joined by new partners, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, in addition to the on-going support and partnership from FICCI and IUSSTF.

Following presentations on their ideas in front of an esteemed judges panel, 10 innovators were declared winners of the IIGP award for 2017. This includes a certificate and a cash award of INR 10 lakh each to winners of the University Challenge and up to Rs. 25 lakh each to winners of the Open Innovation Challenge as Upspeed Funding.

The winning innovations of IIGP 2.0, 2017 provide technologies that can facilitate the promising missions of the government of India, including, Swachch Bharat - Clean India, Green India, Make in India, Digital India, and the recently adopted Healthy India. The IIGP through its past and present winners is striving to strengthen these flagship government initiatives by being a technology enabler.

"Through the India Innovation Growth Programme, we challenge innovators to bring forth ideas and innovations that will shape India's industrial future," said Lockheed Martin Chief Technology Officer Keoki Jackson. "This is a tremendous partnership between government, academia and industry as well as a primary example of how we are supporting Make in India's goal to position the country as a hub for global manufacturing."

"Tata Trusts have epitomised for over hundred years the concept now recognized as Corporate Social Responsibility. Innovation in technology and its solutions is crucial in the Trusts' quest to scale and enhance the reach and execution of its programmes. The Trusts bring to IIGP 2.0 their strong interest in innovations that have an effective and durable impact on social change," said Padma V. R. Mehta, Trustee, Tata Trusts.

Congratulating the IIGP winners, Harkesh Mittal, Adviser, Member Secretary, National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India said, "the technologies on display during the competition ensure us that India is sitting on a goldmine of talent. Through IIGP, we hope to inspire a new wave of technological development and find solutions to problems facing India and the world."

IIGP 2.0 has also been supported by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) through Startup India. They will be registering fifty startups that are part of the final stage of IIGP. 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.