Industrialist Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Trusts, Professor Ashutosh Sharma, secretary, department of science and technology, Government of India, and George Strandridge, vice president, business development, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, will roll out the India Innovation Growth Programme 2.0 (IIGP 2.0) at the Rashtrapati Bhavan lawns tomorrow. This announcement, to extend and expand the India Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP) for three additional years from 2017 to 2019, will be made at the closing session of the week-long festival of innovation.
Tata Trusts has joined the newly revamped India Innovation Growth Programme 2.0 (IIGP 2.0) along with founding stakeholders the department of science and technology (DST) and global security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin, with a focus on innovations addressing socio-economic challenges.
The IIGP 2.0 which is a public-private partnership, will invest in social and industrial innovations, train innovators in world-class commercialisation strategies, offer support for incubation and assist in business development.
The programme is aimed at enabling entrepreneurs to develop science and technology-based solutions for the benefit of the society. Select innovators across social and industrial sectors will have the opportunity to accelerate their proof of concepts to a sustainable product or service and to contribute to government’s evolving industrial strategy and new focus on the “Start-Up India” initiative.
Other new programme partners include, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B). IIGP 2.0 includes several new components including the University Challenge in addition to the Open Innovation Challenge, said a statement.
Innovators from across the country with breakthrough ideas and demonstrable proof of concepts having either a social or industrial impact can participate in IIGP 2.0. Some of the sectors include aeronautics, agriculture, biotechnology, chemistry, communications, computing, defence, electronics, environment, healthcare, information technology, manufacturing, materials, life sciences, nanotechnology, petrochemical, semiconductors and transportation.
The programme invites fresh application from innovators to submit technological solutions that have a social and economic impact. They will be evaluated and ranked by a joint team comprising all program partners. Predefined parameters include development status, India-centricity, maturity of the idea, social impact, funding required for technology development, and other elements. Selected innovators will receive advanced training from leading academia in basic principles of product commercialization, readiness for market, business models, IP rights, competitive positioning, and mechanisms for revenue. Additional benefits to look forward to are training in technology commercialisation strategies and entrepreneurship; analysis of commercial potential of their technology; professional business development assistance, and access to US and global investor markets.
