Nasscom accelerates efforts for deep-tech innovation in India

IT industry body Nasscom Tuesday unveiled its 'Accelerate 10X' programme that aims to strengthen India's position in the global ecosystem of deep-tech innovation around artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science.

Part of its 10,000 startups initiative, Accelerate 10X will be a six-month programme for chosen startups to build deep-tech tech products from India.

Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh said in the last few years, India has grown to become the world's third largest tech startup ecosystem with close to a dozen unicorns being created.

"In future, the demand for advanced deep tech and AI-related technologies is expected to unlock a trillion-dollar opportunity... Deep-tech start-ups will drive this transformation as well as spearhead the broad structural transformation of the economy," she added.

Through Accelerate 10X, Nasscom aims to mentor 100 mature stage startups every year with the six-month programme, focussing on three key aspects - Product (Global Acceleration and Mentoring), Technology (Engineering and Deeptech Lab) and access to Patient capital.

Ghosh said the AI startup segment had seen an increase in funding of over 70 per cent in 2017, with Natural Language Processing (NLP) being one of the major focus areas for investors.

"Policy makers and business leaders must prepare for, and work toward, the AI revolution as we are endowed with one of most vibrant markets when it comes to innovation and we have all the entrepreneurial foundation to build these deep tech startups and achieve quality and scale," Nasscom Chairman Rishad Premji said.

He added that a collaborative effort is important to galvanise India's capabilities in emerging technologies.

The Accelerate 10X programme also forges partnerships with global tech leaders like Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) for setting up Engineering and Deep Tech labs. The programme will work closely with several venture capitalists/private equity partners like Saif Partners, Inventus Capital Partners and AXILOR.