Five reasons you need to apply to the Qualcomm® Design in India Challenge today!
Unlimited access to an Innovation Lab that offers product/hardware design startups to incubate their product and allows them to work on their dream technology – RF design, digital design, camera and audio optimisation, RF calibration. Sounds super cool, doesn’t it?
Well, that’s just one of the several reasons why you must apply for the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge.
The meeting between Qualcomm Executive Chairman Dr Paul E. Jacobs and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is where it all began. At the meeting, held in late 2015, Dr Jacobs told the Prime Minister how designing in India was an integral part of the Make in India initiative. This eventually took the form of the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge, focused exclusively on product design and development companies and startups in India.
Applications for the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge close on February 29.
And here are five reasons why you can’t afford to miss that deadline:
- $10,000 in prize money for up to 10 companies, and $100,000 for the top three
Up to 10 companies will be shortlisted by March 2016, each of which will win a $10,000 cash prize. The prize money will enable you to convert your design submissions into workable prototypes at the Qualcomm Innovation Lab. At the end of six months, if your idea can be described with superlative adjectives and gets judged among the top three winning ideas at the grand finale, you will be awarded up to $100,000 each.
While this is inviting enough, you’ll be glad that the cash prizes will be paid up front and you don’t even have to give up any equity stake! The shortlisted and winning companies will also be awarded a certificate of recognition for their achievements.
- Unlimited access to Qualcomm’s Innovation lab
The innovation lab will help to incubate hardware design startups. For six months, you can walk in and out of Qualcomm Innovation Lab in Bangalore where you will get to work with the best of the best engineering talent as well as tools and equipment that will fuel your design journey. You will also be given access to chipsets, Qualcomm Reference Design Platforms (QRD), SDKs and necessary hardware kits that can speed up your effort. And with dedicated technical staff offering hands-on support, you can be assured of making the best use of the facility. Be it designing, prototyping or testing – it can all take place under one roof. So you’ll be able to prototype a great design without having to worry about test equipment.
- IP strategy support
Protection of intellectual property rights is something that young Indian companies often struggle with. However, if you’re one of the chosen startups, you’ll get advice and counseling on your IP strategy from Qualcomm’s in-house experts.
- Assistance in filing patents
Qualcomm will also help startups by providing necessary assistance and advice in filing patents which, many startups will agree, is a challenging and time-consuming process.
- Because, YOU could have the winning idea
The challenge is an opportunity for everyone and anyone with a great product idea to step forward and participate. Not only do you have a good chance of being shortlisted and getting rewarded, but also a chance to test your idea and see where it stands.
Never before have product and hardware design startups in India had such an opportunity with so much to gain, for that reason alone this is worth applying for.
Now that you’ve heard it out and assuming that you have decided to apply, you must do it right now: The last date for applying is February 29, 2016.
Apply for the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge here.
Qualcomm and Make in India
Qualcomm’s leadership team is encouraged greatly by the recent two big initiatives which have been rolled out in the country – Digital India and Make in India. Keeping the larger vision of these initiatives, the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge aims to spur the domestic hardware ecosystem and positively impact the product ecosystem of design, development and ultimately enhance the manufacturing facilities in India.
Talking more about the Challenge, Sunil Lalvani, President, Qualcomm India, says, “India has got a lot of hardware engineering talent. With Design in Challenge we are encouraging entrepreneurs, startups, and anyone who has got any interesting concept or an idea to leverage the programme and together make India the hub for hardware design across the globe.”
So what are you waiting for – apply right away.
