NASSCOM CoE drives enterprise & startup collaboration through Manufacturing Innovation Challenge 2020
NASSCOM Centre of Excellence IoT& AI, an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), and the Gujarat government organised a Manufacturing Innovation Challenge 2020 (MIC2020) from 15th July 2020 to 21st August 2020. Objective of this challenge was to build a first of a kind platform for enterprise and start-up collaboration to solve key challenges manufacturing industry is facing today. MIC2020 received 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.
NASSCOM CoE in conjunction with JK Lakshmi Cements Ltd, Bayer Corpscience, and Tata Chemicals Ltd nominated three use cases i.e. Workers Health and Safety, Solution to Promote Safety of Workers in Large Plants; Predictive maintenance of high-value assets; and 360° Virtual Tour of plant for which startups were encouraged to solve any of the challenges by submitting a proposal. IIT Gandhinagar was the Research Partner and Gujarat Electronics & Software Industries Association (GESIA) was the Outreach partner. Twelve top startups presented to the jury that had representation from senior leaders from industry, academia and government.
In an online award ceremony, AirVlabs – Kesh Kesavadas and Chinmay Sengupta, Alluvium – Suraj Rajan and Siri Chandana Medehal, Chistats – Rahul Lahane and Yogesh Karpate were announced as winners of the three challenges. These startups will now get an opportunity to work on a remunerative Proof of Concept with companies who nominated their use cases. In addition, start-ups will also get one-year membership to the NASSCOM CoE Acceleration Program.
Speaking on the occasion, Saurabh Gaur, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, said, “In current times, the significance of self-reliance is at an all-time high. Even the Government of India is cognisant of this and made the clarion call for an AatmaNirbharBharat. India has high calibre potential to drive incremental change using technology, and the time is now to build capabilities that will bolster self-reliance and innovation. This requires a collaborative effort – of enterprises, startups, policy makers – to identify the right problems and solution providers. The Manufacturing Innovation Challenge 2020 is a perfect example of this cross collaboration to further innovation & build self-reliance.”
This is a much-needed initiative at the time when we are looking to open economies during the pandemic. We need to learn to live with the virus and have to practice a new normal. Coordination and management of people and processes will be required, and it is not easy without good strategies.