10 shortlisted companies receive $10,000 and a chance to win $100,000 as part of the Qualcomm® Design in India Challenge
There was thunderous applause as Qualcomm® announced the 10 companies shortlisted in the first edition of the Qualcomm® Design in India Challenge at a high-profile event in New Delhi on April 12.
Aimed at catalysing the creation of a product and hardware design ecosystem in India (across smartphones, tablets and Internet of Things (IoT) for agriculture, automotive, banking, education, healthcare, smart cities and wearables) the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge was launched in December 2015 in association with NASSCOM.
The 10 companies shortlisted from an overwhelming number of applications were awarded $10,000 each. They will also receive technical and engineering support at the Qualcomm® Innovation Lab in Bengaluru to further develop their innovative ideas into marketable products. And, at the end of the incubation period (around November 2016), three winning products will receive $100,000 each!
The companies that made it to the shortlist are:
- Aarav Unmanned Systems’ Nayan – a high performance quad-rotor for researchers and developers
- Artificial Machines’ HAZE Platform – an end-to-end IoT platform to make products smarter
- Carnot Technologies’ a smart bike platform – that makes any conventional two-wheeler smarter with towing/security alerts, engine/battery health and performance insights. Etc.
- Green Robot Machinery’s smart and compact precision farm machinery for small farms
- iFuture Robotics’ Ark Robot – an army of autonomous robots for smart logistics
- Lensbricks Technology’s Kiba – a camera that automatically captures and shares joy through videos
- Myelin’s hybrid octo-copter with inter changeable modules for different sectoral applications
- Treepie Computing’s High Performance Computing (HPC) framework for IoT applications
- Uncanny Vision’s next-generation surveillance solution to bring intelligent security to smart cities
- Watchy Technology’s innovative solutions that enable organisations to broadcast reliably
Talking about the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge, Sunil Lalvani, Vice President and President of Qualcomm India & South Asia, said, “We are thrilled at the overwhelming response to the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge and look forward to incubating the top 10 finalists in the Qualcomm Innovation Lab to transform their ideas from concept to product stage.”
He added, “Inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India vision, Qualcomm is excited to support the possibility of making India a hub for design capabilities that would drive the value chain from a service focused to product capable industry.”
The event was attended by a gamut of representatives from the government, industries, and startup community. J S Deepak, secretary, of the Department of Telecom (DoT), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, said, “We are delighted to see an industry leader like Qualcomm join forces and contribute to the government’s Make in India vision. The Qualcomm Design in India Challenge will have a positive impact towards making India a global hub for hardware design.”
Dr. Aruna Sharma, Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, too appreciated the programme and said that it “has the potential to foster game-changing product innovation, design and development of mobile technologies and IoT, and support the government’s Make in India vision.” Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, said, “We are happy to be associated with Qualcomm in this progressive effort to actualise the Make in India vision. This initiative, closely aligned with NASSCOM’s own vision to 'Connect, Collaborate and Co-create', is a great platform to drive innovation.”
If there’s one key message that the event highlighted, it was how corporates, governments and the talent pool can come together to forge a partnership that will enable the country to take the next big leap and foster faster growth and development.
Click here to read more about the top 10 ideas!
This announcement has been sponsored by Qualcomm.