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Saturday, April 15, 2017

Student innovators demonstrate disruptive ideas in the semi-finals of 7th India Innovation Challenge Design Contest

India, Bangalore, April 15, 2017: The DST & Texas Instruments India Inc. Innovation Challenge Design Contest 2016 enters its semi-final phase with the start of the first of the two semi-final rounds today at IIM Bangalore.  The contest saw the participation of ~11000 students from 624 engineering colleges from across India. The semi-final event was inaugurated by Mr. Sanjay Srivastava, Director - University Program, Texas Instruments India & Mr. Nagaraja Prakasam, Mentor, NSRCEL IIM Bangalore. 

30 student teams from 30 engineering colleges presented their innovative products to a panel of evaluators who are thought leaders and accomplished achievers from various walks of life.  The panel consisted of entrepreneurs, professors, bureaucrats and entries were judged based on customer validation, strategic innovation, marketing innovation, business interdependence, etc. The second semi-final is scheduled to be on April 22, 2017 at BML University, Gurugram.

IICDC over the years has become a platform that nurtures innovation. Engineering students have displayed path breaking innovation that has the potential to bring about socio economic change for India. It aspires to foster innovation at the formative years of a student. Most of 2016 entries have corroborated closely with the Government’s vision of Swaach Bharat, Digital India, Smart Cities projects, etc. Most solutions that have been shortlisted to the semi-finals have the potential to solve pressing problems across various sectors and to help bring positive change to the lives of millions of people. This contest aims to propel the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative through student start-ups and contribute to the country’s manufacturing ecosystem.

Texas Instruments has taken this contest to greater heights by collaborating with IIM Bangalore and DST. IIM Bangalore through its efforts at NSRCEL will mentor the top 10 teams and help them to incubate their innovative product into start-up ventures. DST will fund INR 3.5 crore to the student start-ups, which will go towards the product development fund of INR 1.5 crore and seed fund of INR 2 crore for the top teams to incubate their start-ups.



“Texas Instruments India, through India Innovation Challenge has been the pioneer in creating a platform for young engineering students across the country to showcase innovation. It is heartening to see around 11,000 students across 624 top engineering colleges participating in this contest. The scale of this year contest would not have been possible without the unrelenting support from partners IIM B, DST and MyGov. Some path breaking innovations are being witnessed this year and we are confident that with the support of our partners the students are well poised to bring a change in the eco-system making it safer, cleaner, smarter, productive and more efficient” said Sanjay Srivastava, Director - University Program, Texas Instruments India.





Professor Suresh Bhagavatula, Chairperson, Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development, at IIM Bangalore, said, “IICDC is an excellent platform for the students who are having a dream to convert their ideas to successful enterprises. The last few months, we have encouraged and mentored some of the talented engineers and with semi-finals they are very close to build their own start-ups to get incubated at the Nadathur S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) from IIM Bangalore”.


 “DST plays a pivotal role in promoting science and technology in the country. Collaborating with India Innovation Challenge we were able to witness innovations that had the right amalgamation of ideas and technology to help build and transform this nation into an economic power house”, said Mr. H.K. Mittal, Advisor and Head, NSTEDB, DST, GOI.
About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments semiconductor innovations help 100,000 customers unlock the possibilities of the world as it could be – smarter, safer, greener, healthier and more fun. Our commitment to building a better future is ingrained in everything we do – from the responsible manufacturing of our semiconductors, to caring for our employees, to giving back inside our communities. This is just the beginning of our story. Learn more at www.ti.com.

About IIMB & NSRCEL
The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) builds leaders and entrepreneurs through holistic, transformative and innovative education. An EQUIS accredit school, IIMB is an acknowledged hub of academic activity in India and globally. IIMB’s research centres include the Centre for Public Policy, the Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, the Centre for Financial Markets & Risk Management, the Centre for Corporate Governance & Citizenship, the Centre for Software & IT Management, and the Centre for Supply Chain Management. The N S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) incubates start-ups and provides free mentoring for budding entrepreneurs. NSRCEL currently incubates 18 start-ups – perhaps the largest number for an incubation center in an academic institution.  In 2015-16, NSRCEL conducted 400 mentoring sessions and 34 events. Through its rapidly growing open mentoring initiatives, it is conservatively estimated that NSRCEL may have directly impacted in excess of 10,000 entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs or other participants in the ecosystem since it was established in 2000.

About DST
The Department of Science and Technology (DST), set up in 1971 by the Government of India plays a pivotal role in promotion of science & technology in the country. The department has wide ranging activities ranging from promoting high end basic research and development of cutting edge technologies on one hand to service the technological requirements of the common man through development of appropriate skills and technologies on the other. One of the mandates of DST is to support innovations, science and technology based entrepreneurship development and technology business incubation activity through National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (https://www.nstedb.com/). The board engages with academic and R&D institutions and also partners with leading industries to promote entrepreneurship across the country

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