Tata, Lockheed Martin & Indian Government Joined by New Trust Partners
On 26 July, the India Innovation Growth Programme announced the winners of its University and Open Innovation Challenges, in which 50 innovators were selected from 1,500 applications submitting innovation ideas across social and industrial sectors. The selectees were invited to participate in a week-long advanced training session covering the basic principles of product commercialisation, readiness for market, business models, intellectual property rights and competitive positioning by faculty members from the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad (IIM- A).
The India Innovation Growth Programme 2.0 (IIGP 2.0) comprises Tata Trusts, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Lockheed Martin as founding stakeholders and were joined by new partners Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), IIM-A and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
Ten of these innovators were then declared winners of the IIGP award for 2017. This includes a cash award of INR 10 lakh (approx. £12,000) each to winners of the University Challenge and up to INR 25 lakh each to winners of the Open Innovation Challenge as Upspeed Funding. From a defence and security industrial perspective, one of the important Indian government missions supported by this process is the Make in India initiative. The IIGP, through its past and present winners, is striving to strengthen this and other 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,” Keoki Jackson, Chief Technology Officer at Lockheed Martin, commented. “This is a tremendous partnership between government, academia and industry as well as a prime 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 recognised 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,” Padma Shri V. R. Mehta, Trustee, Tata Trusts, observed.
