NASSCOM CoE Launches the 2nd Edition of Manufacturing Innovation Challenge 2020

NASSCOM Centre of Excellence IoT& AI, an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), and the Gujarat government launched the second edition of the Manufacturing Innovation Challenge 2020 (MIC2020) from 12th October 2020 to 12th December 2020. The objective of this challenge is to build the first-of-a-kind platform for enterprise and start-up collaboration to solve key challenges the manufacturing industry is facing today.

NASSCOM CoE in conjunction with RPG Group, JK Lakshmi Cement, Thermax Limited, Mother Dairy, Grasim Industries and Minda Industries have nominated six use cases in three broad categories of Resource Optimization, Improved Throughput and Supply Chain for which startups will be encouraged to solve challenges by submitting a proposal. Top 18 startups will then be presented to Jury that will have representation from senior leaders from industry, academia and government. Start-ups will also receive mentoring support throughout their journey in the challenge to better prepare them for the challenge.

First edition of MIC2020 received an overwhelming response as 88 matured startups from across the country registered for the challenges, and they went through a rigorous screening process of four rounds. Speaking at the launch, Amit Saluja, Sr. Director & Vertical Head, Manufacturing, Gandhinagar, NASSCOM CoE, said, “NASSCOM CoE is building an ecosystem for manufacturing companies to work with technology companies and innovative start-ups to drive adoption of Industry 4.0 solutions.MIC2020 was launched to accelerate this mission and received an exceptional response. This challenge created value for everyone as it helped enterprises find the best solution partner and start-ups got an opportunity to work with their dream companies. The success of this program has motivated us to run these challenges every quarter, and we look forward to getting similar support in all our future initiatives.”

“I think events like MIC not only helps start ups to showcase their capabilities and solutions in solving real business problem but also helps industries to solve some of the crucial problems in much shorter time. This in a way helps accelerate the journey of Digital Transformation. Typically vendor identification and finalization may take anywhere between 3-4 months, which can happen in less than a month thru this platform. It’s a great opportunity and a platform for both Solution Providers and Industry to mutually benefit from,” says Samip Mutha, Vice President and Group Head- Digital and Innovation at RPG Group.

Manufacturing Innovation Challenge helps the companies connect with top-class start-ups which can be of immense help in creating future innovations. “The platforms can accelerate to kick-start a Digital Transformation journey in the country’s formidable industries. In current times, self-reliance is of utmost importance and Government of India has also called for AatmaNirbhar Bharat. Our startups have a high calibre to drive incremental change using technology, and NASSCOM CoE is trying to build capabilities that will bolster self-reliance and innovation,” he adds.

About NASSCOM Center of Excellence IoT& AI

The NASSCOM Center of Excellence is the largest collaborative innovation platform in the emerging technologies of IoT, Analytics, AI/ML, AR/VR and Robotics for Digital Transformation. It is part of the Digital India Initiative to jumpstart and drive the emerging technologies ecosystem in India, by leveraging India's IT strengths and assist the country attain a leadership role in the convergent area of hardware and software.

The main objective of the CoE is to help Indian Deep-Tech Startups& Companies leverage cutting edge technologies to build market-ready products. Through the Startups Program, CoE aims to build industry capable talent in an entrepreneurial ecosystem by facilitating Incubation, Funding, Acceleration, Industry Connect and Mentoring.

NASSCOM CoE was setup in July 2016 as part of the Digital India initiative of MeitY, with the objective of aiding innovative start-ups in the emerging technologies. NASSCOM CoE-IoT has centers in Bengaluru, Gurugram, Gandhinagar and Vizag.

Pharma Major AstraZeneca and NASSCOM tie-up to Launch Accelerator for Healthcare Startups

Global biopharmaceutical major AstraZeneca and Indian IT industry body Nasscom have joined hands to set up an accelerator programme to support Indian startups in healthcare space.

Headquartered in Cambridge, U.K. AstraZeneca has launched a strategic partnership with the Nasscom IoT Centre of Excellence to set up an accelerator programme to support Indian startups develop innovative solutions to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) care in India.

AstraZeneca also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NASSCOM

AstraZeneca PLC Chairman of the Board Leif Johansson told PTI: “Best healthcare that can be provided and developed comes from cooperation across borders between industry, government and academia in a such way that we, with the help of technology, can provide a higher-quality service at a lower cost.” AstraZeneca is committed to strengthening innovation in healthcare in India, he added.

In a statement, Johansson said: “We are pleased to collaborate with the government, start-up eco-system and industry partners to achieve the shared vision of making meaningful interventions in improving the lives of patients impacted by non-communicable diseases in India.” Highlighting the Unnati initiative, Sweden’s Trade Commissioner to India Carsten Grönblad said: “Unnati is a model for co-innovation allowing industry, start-ups and the civil society to jointly develop solutions addressing global social needs.” This challenge calls for collaboration to implement early and remote screening as well as efficient AI-based patient management, he added.

NASSCOM – CoE IoT was launched as part of Government of India’s Digital India Initiative to help the country achieve a leadership role in the convergent areas of hardware and software. Under this collaboration, AstraZeneca and NASSCOM will incubate start-ups in bringing innovative and frugal solutions that can help in the management of NCDs. 

Source - Financial Express

Top Featured Image - WSJ.com

NASSCOM, Haryana Govt Jointly Launch CoE for IoT in Gurugram Focused on Startups

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), in collaboration with the Haryana government, has launched Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Internet of Things (IoT) at Gurugram, on Saturday last week.

This CoE for IoT will provide one of the largest innovation platforms for enabling IoT revolution through connected devices using emerging technologies.

This Gurugram centre is the most recent addition to a hub-and-spoke network of CoEs across the country and is a part of a nationwide collaborative initiative involving Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), state governments and NASSCOM.

Providing startups with access to state-of-the-art infrastructure, the CoE will stimulate co-creation in consultation with industry experts through NASSCOM programs. Interested startups, academicans or entrepreneurs can Apply for Gurugram CoE-IoT here - http://coe-iot.com/gurugram/

With an aim to accelerate the technology ecosystem in Haryana, it will specialize in real-world solutions for Industry 4.0. NASSCOM will also work with the industry and government to identify use cases for technology intervention and connect academia, industry, and policymakers to bring cutting-edge research to the market.

This initiative is in line with the government’s focus on strengthening the IoT infrastructure in the country as well as providing high-end technology capabilities, data, expertise, thought leadership and curated programs to augment capabilities.

Through this collaboration, NASSCOM will work with the industry and the government towards accelerating innovation, enabling industry-oriented research, promoting adoption of data-driven decision making by enterprises and enabling appropriate skills & talent development.

The centre was inaugurated by Shri Vipul Goyal, Hon’ble Minister for Industry and Commerce, Government of Haryana in the presence of other eminent dignitaries, Shri Ankur Gupta, Principal Secretary IT, Government of Haryana​,Shri Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Shri Vijayendra Kumar, Secretary, Hartron along with Debjani
Ghosh, President, NASSCOM and executives of leading companies.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM​, said “The aim of NASSCOM’s Centre of Excellence is to act as a perfect collaboration for innovation and high-end technologies. By bringing in the best minds from industry, academia, start-ups and the government we aim to drive a culture of collaboration and co-creation to find solutions to accelerate India’s economic development."

"With valuable efforts from the Haryana government, the facility will serve as a platform for intelligence-sharing and technology collaboration between stakeholders, to build collective IoT capabilities. NASSCOM and its industry members are currently engaged in defining the future of job in the digital transformation era and such an initiative from Government of Haryana is a welcome step in the right direction," she added.

In 2015, NASSCOM had unveiled its plan to setup Centre of Excellence for emerging Internet of Things in India to enable rapid adoption of IoT technology. These CoEs also functions as skill development platform to build talent & instill a temper of research & development.

The main objective of the CoE-IoT is to help Indian IoT Startups leverage cutting edge technologies to build market ready product.

Source - NASSCOM | Via - Devdiscourse

[Top Image - PioneerInteriorsIndia.com]

NASSCOM, Haryana Govt Jointly Launch CoE for IoT in Gurugram Focused on Startups

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), in collaboration with the Haryana government, has launched Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Internet of Things (IoT) at Gurugram, on Saturday last week.

This CoE for IoT will provide one of the largest innovation platforms for enabling IoT revolution through connected devices using emerging technologies.

This Gurugram centre is the most recent addition to a hub-and-spoke network of CoEs across the country and is a part of a nationwide collaborative initiative involving Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), state governments and NASSCOM.

Providing startups with access to state-of-the-art infrastructure, the CoE will stimulate co-creation in consultation with industry experts through NASSCOM programs. Interested startups, academicans or entrepreneurs can Apply for Gurugram CoE-IoT here - http://coe-iot.com/gurugram/

With an aim to accelerate the technology ecosystem in Haryana, it will specialize in real-world solutions for Industry 4.0. NASSCOM will also work with the industry and government to identify use cases for technology intervention and connect academia, industry, and policymakers to bring cutting-edge research to the market.

This initiative is in line with the government’s focus on strengthening the IoT infrastructure in the country as well as providing high-end technology capabilities, data, expertise, thought leadership and curated programs to augment capabilities.

Through this collaboration, NASSCOM will work with the industry and the government towards accelerating innovation, enabling industry-oriented research, promoting adoption of data-driven decision making by enterprises and enabling appropriate skills & talent development.

The centre was inaugurated by Shri Vipul Goyal, Hon’ble Minister for Industry and Commerce, Government of Haryana in the presence of other eminent dignitaries, Shri Ankur Gupta, Principal Secretary IT, Government of Haryana​,Shri Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Shri Vijayendra Kumar, Secretary, Hartron along with Debjani
Ghosh, President, NASSCOM and executives of leading companies.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM​, said “The aim of NASSCOM’s Centre of Excellence is to act as a perfect collaboration for innovation and high-end technologies. By bringing in the best minds from industry, academia, start-ups and the government we aim to drive a culture of collaboration and co-creation to find solutions to accelerate India’s economic development."

"With valuable efforts from the Haryana government, the facility will serve as a platform for intelligence-sharing and technology collaboration between stakeholders, to build collective IoT capabilities. NASSCOM and its industry members are currently engaged in defining the future of job in the digital transformation era and such an initiative from Government of Haryana is a welcome step in the right direction," she added.

In 2015, NASSCOM had unveiled its plan to setup Centre of Excellence for emerging Internet of Things in India to enable rapid adoption of IoT technology. These CoEs also functions as skill development platform to build talent & instill a temper of research & development.

The main objective of the CoE-IoT is to help Indian IoT Startups leverage cutting edge technologies to build market ready product.

Source - NASSCOM | Via - Devdiscourse

[Top Image - PioneerInteriorsIndia.com]

Nasscom To Set Up IoT CoE in Hyderabad

The Hyderabad IT sector is going through one of its best phase in the recent times. After the city got selected by National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) for a centre of excellence (CoE) on big data and analytics, the body is now gearing up to set up another CoE for internet of things (IoT) in the city.

Established in 1988, Nasscom is a trade association of Indian Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing industry. Prior to Hyderabad, the association had already set up one of the IoT CoEs in Bengaluru (Read Here).

Nasscom sector skill council chairman B V R Mohan Reddy strongly believes that IoT can prove to be one of the game changing technologies that can have tremendous impact in many verticals such as e-governance, healthcare, and retail, among others.

The organisation is currently awaiting an approval from the central government to start working on Hyderabad's IoT CoE.

According to Sanjeev Malhotra, CEO, IoT Centre of Excellence,"Once approval is granted, we will request for space from the state government. This will be set up in a public private partnership (PPP) model, wherein half of the funding will come from the central government and half from industry."

As and when the approval is granted, Nasscom will require around 10,000-15000 sqft space for setting up the centre, of which around 3,000 sqft will be a dedicated lab space.

It was almost a year ago in July that Nasscom had launched its first IoT CoE at Bengaluru, in association with the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) and Education and Research Network (ERNET). Nasscom believes that there can be a vast scope of engagement with startups in the area of IoT, and is hence looking to set up four more IoT COEs throughout the country. These COEs are most likely to be set up Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Ahmedabad and Andhra Pradesh.

Malhotra further clarified that these IoT centres will be working towards the usage of IoT in different verticals. While all of the four centre would have some common layers like there will be labs in all four, where startups would be able to come and work. But at the same time, each of the centres will have a separate focus area like agri, healthcare etc. For example, Nasscom IoT CoE is most likely to be focussed on agri tech.

According to Malhotra, their aim with the IoT CoEs is not become another T-Hub. They are just going to deal with startups who have deep technology. He added that their goal is to promote IoT as a technology and help entrepreneurs take this technology to the end users, which in this case are the manufacturers.

So, if IT is where your heart lies, now is the right time to shift base to Hyderabad, we think.

Nasscom To Set Up IoT CoE in Hyderabad

The Hyderabad IT sector is going through one of its best phase in the recent times. After the city got selected by National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) for a centre of excellence (CoE) on big data and analytics, the body is now gearing up to set up another CoE for internet of things (IoT) in the city.

Established in 1988, Nasscom is a trade association of Indian Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing industry. Prior to Hyderabad, the association had already set up one of the IoT CoEs in Bengaluru (Read Here).

Nasscom sector skill council chairman B V R Mohan Reddy strongly believes that IoT can prove to be one of the game changing technologies that can have tremendous impact in many verticals such as e-governance, healthcare, and retail, among others.

The organisation is currently awaiting an approval from the central government to start working on Hyderabad's IoT CoE.

According to Sanjeev Malhotra, CEO, IoT Centre of Excellence,"Once approval is granted, we will request for space from the state government. This will be set up in a public private partnership (PPP) model, wherein half of the funding will come from the central government and half from industry."

As and when the approval is granted, Nasscom will require around 10,000-15000 sqft space for setting up the centre, of which around 3,000 sqft will be a dedicated lab space.

It was almost a year ago in July that Nasscom had launched its first IoT CoE at Bengaluru, in association with the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) and Education and Research Network (ERNET). Nasscom believes that there can be a vast scope of engagement with startups in the area of IoT, and is hence looking to set up four more IoT COEs throughout the country. These COEs are most likely to be set up Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Ahmedabad and Andhra Pradesh.

Malhotra further clarified that these IoT centres will be working towards the usage of IoT in different verticals. While all of the four centre would have some common layers like there will be labs in all four, where startups would be able to come and work. But at the same time, each of the centres will have a separate focus area like agri, healthcare etc. For example, Nasscom IoT CoE is most likely to be focussed on agri tech.

According to Malhotra, their aim with the IoT CoEs is not become another T-Hub. They are just going to deal with startups who have deep technology. He added that their goal is to promote IoT as a technology and help entrepreneurs take this technology to the end users, which in this case are the manufacturers.

So, if IT is where your heart lies, now is the right time to shift base to Hyderabad, we think.

IvyCamp And NASSCOM Announce The 3rd Season of Rendezvous IoT- India’s Platform For IoT Startups, VCs, Investors, Experts And Corporates

IvyCamp, an initiative of IvyCap Ventures, and NASSCOM 10000 StartUps under the aegis of CoE-IoT (Centre of Excellence in Internet of Things) have announced their third season of Rendezvous IoT (RIOT-3), supported by the Government of Maharashtra and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation.

The event which focuses on IOT, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, VR and Hardware Space startups, will enable them to connect with corporates for potential orders, synergy, acquisition, acquihiring, funding and the likes. For corporates, it is an opportunity to tap into startups to identify solutions that could address their business problems.
The event is to be held on the 10th at the 91 SpringBoard office in Mumbai.

The earlier editions of the event, RIOT-1 and RIOT-2 witnessed hundreds of startups and investors participating in the event. The total amount of funding awarded has been over Rs 7.5 crores across both the editions.

The earlier editions also saw participation from large corporates such as Tech Mahindra, TATA, Reliance, etc.Indian and foreign Government agencies such as Smart Cities Commission and Government of New South Wales and Government of Ecuador also participated in the event.

The NASSCOM and IvyCamp's alliance will look at developing strategies and initiatives to bolster the IOT movement in Indian StartUp Ecosystem including cultivating innovation, educating the investment community and fostering partnerships between industry and the startups.

Speaking on this occasion, Anju Gupta, President, and co-Founder - IvyCamp said, “IoT/AI/VR/Machine Learning is a massively untapped opportunity and market in India and Globally. Our Partnership with NASSCOM and activities like RIOT are focused on providing the focused support and connects that startups in these areas need. RIOT 1 and RIOT 2 connected startups with technical experts and investors. RIOT 3 is focused on the third much needed critical pillar of corporates, which can provide the real world application, market, and resources. This corporate- startup connection is also vital to educate our innovators on the real world problems corporates are trying to address - and through this, bring more practically driven innovation into our startup ecosystem.

Research by McKinsey Global Institute estimates the impact of the Internet of Things on the global economy will be $6.2T by 2025. NASSCOM and Deloitte recently pegged the IoT market in India at $5.6B in 2016, growing to over $15B by 2020.