Tata Trusts, Lockheed Martin extend innovation partnerships

Tata Trusts, along with global aerospace major Lockheed Martin, has announced a revamped India Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP) in partnership with the Union science and technology department to foster sustainable social and industrial innovations.
According to a statement from Tata Trusts, Union science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan made the announcement in the US.
The programme will be carried on by the Tata Trusts' Foundation for Innovation & Social Entrepreneurship, the statement said.
The agreement will extend and expand the India Innovation Growth Programme for three more years from 2017 to 2019, Tata Trusts said, adding the goal is to foster a culture of innovation as well as social and industrial entrepreneurship, the statement said.

Tata Trusts will support and expand the social innovation focus of IIGP through its Foundation for Innovation & Social Entrepreneurship.
Since 2007, Lockheed Martin and the Union science and technology department have sponsored the IIGP with the aim of accelerating innovative technologies from the country into global markets.

The programme has produced over 350 successful innovations and nearly USD 1 billion of economic value addition here in the past decade, the statement added.
The newly enhanced programme offers mentorship and capacity building and provides opportunities for incubation and financial assistance.
Under new IIGP, select innovators across social and industrial sectors will have opportunity to accelerate their proof of concepts to a sustainable product or service for global markets.

The FISE along with select thought leaders from the Tata group will evaluate innovations that have strong societal impact and cutting edge industrial innovations.
Furthermore, innovations on the industrial side, which has high potential, will be leveraged in the Tata ecosystem to ensure that inventors get the right opportunity which will help them mature their concept, it said.