For immediate publication
Texas Instruments and Ministry of Science and Technology announce India Innovation Challenge Design Contest(IICDC) 2018offering INR 8.2 Crore asStart-up funding,Stipend, Tools and Prizes for Indian Engineering Students
- INR 3.5Cr to be allocated asstart-upfunds, INR 3.5Cr as stipend andINR 1.2 Cr worth of toolsand prizes
- Opportunityfor Indian engineering students to earn 15,000+ certificates
- Top ten start-ups will be incubated by NSRCEL at IIMBangalore
India, Bangalore, June 2018: Texas Instruments (TI) today announced the upcoming edition of DST - TI India Innovation Challenge Design Contest (IICDC)which opens for registration from June 20, 2018till Aug31,2018. A dedicated TI-IICDC page was launched on MyGov portal byDr. Anita Gupta, Advisor and Associate Head-NSTEDB, Department of Science and Technology, Professor Suresh Bhagavatula Chairperson, NSRCEL, IIMBand Mr. Sanjay Srivastava, Director, Texas Instruments India University Program at IIM Bangalore today. Students can register their innovative ideas and participate in the contest through this link:https://innovate.mygov.in/india-innovation-challenge-design-contest-2018/ .The Ministry of Science and Technology (DST)and Texas Instruments extend support tothe qualifying teams with a fund of INR 8.2crore, which marks a significant increase from INR 4.14 crore as compared to the previous editions. This edition also provides the opportunity for the Indian engineering students to earn 15,000+ certificates across various stages of the contest.
DST-TI IICDC, which is in its thirdedition, has undergone a remarkable change to beone amongst the most popular innovation contests forIndian engineering students and colleges. In the 2017 edition, 15,380 engineering students from 965 colleges participated,a 43% growth versus 2016. The uniqueness of this contest lies in the partnerships and collaborations that TI has built to create a complete innovation ecosystem for the participants.
“With the launch ofDST-TIIICDC we plugged a stark gap which existed in the ecosystem for Indian engineering students to venture into entrepreneurship with the right support structure. While all teams aim to win, it is the journey of transforming an idea to realitythat students value the most. Theyalso acquire immense learning,with rewards along the way,being mentored by leading minds from TI including networking with other student engineers, and winning several cash prizes and certificates. Our attempt is to create an immersive ecosystem for innovation that challenges students every step of the way,” says Sanjay Srivastava, Director, TI India University Program.
IIM Bangalore’s NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) will help incubate the winning teams and support them in the launch of their venture.
Professor Suresh Bhagavatula, Chair, NSRCEL at IIMB, said, “The collaboration with TI and DST is an exciting opportunity because we are sure to come across unique entrepreneurial ideas and can help transform these ideas into successful enterprises. At NSRCEL, we are happy to provide mentoring for students who want to address critical problems through their innovations.”
The DST-TI IICDC brings together the best from each partnering organizations. The Ministry of Science and Technology supports the young, aspiring entrepreneurs with funding for their start-ups. MyGov, the government’s online portal reaches out to its fivemillion subscribers for participation. National Informatics Centre provides web infrastructure for submission and evaluation of their start-ups
TI spearheads this massive operation of the contest along with providing technical guidance and mentorship, free TI tools worth up to INR 70Lacs, INR 50Lacs prizes and 15,000+ certificates to the participants.
Sanjay further added, “In the past editions of the contest,manycutting-edge ideashave come fromengineering colleges in Tier II and Tier III cities. This is the magic of IICDC. We’ve unearthed brilliant engineers with high impact, transformative ideas and provided a platform to realise their dreams.”
Dr. Harkesh Kumar Mittal, Advisor, Ministry of Science and Technology, said, “With the vision to promote research and development of cutting edge technologies in the country, we are happy to partner with TI which helps in bringing together the best of the talents to a common platform and help them work on leading edge technologies. This will encourage students to engineer innovative solutions that bring socio-economic changes. We were able to see immense potential in IICDC with the increasing number of students registering every year. Our responsibility grows as partners to extend our support with more unique offerings year-on-year.”
Dr. Arvind Gupta, CEO, MyGov, said, “With its enormous ability to bring more than 6 million citizens to partner with Government, MyGov is excited to partner with DST and TI towards bringing new generation of budding engineers to strengthen the innovation index of our country. It will also help MyGov to play a stellar role in developing, supporting and spreading the digital ecosystem of India and enabling the millennials to lead a new dawn of Digital revolution in the country”.
About Texas Instruments:Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is a global semiconductor design and manufacturing company that develops analog ICs and embedded processors. By employing the world's brightest minds, TI creates innovations that shape the future of technology. TI is helping approximately 100,000 customers transform the future, today. Learn more at www.ti.com. For more information on the global TI university program, visit www.ti.com/university.
About IIMB and NSRCEL: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. The NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at IIMB incubates start-ups and provides free mentoring for budding entrepreneurs. NSRCEL currently incubates 42 start-ups – perhaps the largest number for an incubation center in an academic institution. In 2017-18, NSRCEL conducted over 2300 mentoring sessions and 80 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.
For more on IIMB and NSRCEL, go to www.iimb.ac.in
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.
About MyGov: MyGov is a novel initiative taken by the Government of India to build a crucial partnership between Citizens and Government with the help of technology for materialising the real potential of India. Through this platform, the Government encourages public participation towards Good Governance by seeking ideas, suggestion and creative talent of citizens. MyGov’s focus is to empower citizens to work hand in hand with government to channelize their collective energy into constructive nation building. National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has designed, developed and hosted the MyGov and twenty (20) of its Sub-Domains.