Department of Science and Technology, Lockheed Martin and Tata Trusts announce the winners of India Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP 2.0) – 2018

Winners have been awarded Rs. 25 lakhs each. Innovations are in the fields of health, assistive tech, agriculture, energy, robotics, water, space technology etc. End Quote

Iowa City, IA (1888PressRelease) August 05, 2018 - The India Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP) 2.0, a tripartite initiative of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, Lockheed Martin and Tata Trusts announced the winners of the 2018 edition today in New Delhi. The winners were chosen from among 3,000 applicants who proposed innovations to create large scale social impact and bring industrial transformation in India.

IIGP 2.0 is implemented by several supporting partners; Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, Center for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship at IIM Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Tata Center for Technology and Design at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

After the second consecutive year of IIGP 2.0 at the Festival of Innovation at Rashtrapati Bhavan earlier this year, this renewed programme aims to support Government of India’s ‘Start-up India’ and ‘Make in India’ initiatives.
The winners have been awarded an amount of Rs. 25 lakhs each.

Winners from social innovations category:

• Aarna Biomedical Products Ltd (Product: Poorti): Poorti is an affordable, light weight post mastectomy kit designed to cater the needs of breast cancer survivors who have undergone mastectomy to restore their confidence, dignity and femininity.
• Green Farming Forever Innovations (Product: Moksh): Moksh traverses the agriculture farm post-harvest of rice crop. It picks the rice straw from ground on a real time basis and converts the rice-straw into a powder form. It is backed by a unique radiation based dryer which takes 110 times lesser time in comparison to conventional dryers, saving 5-7 days for farmers. It offers farmers to earn as much as INR 40,000/month/machine.
• Torchit Electornics Pvt Ltd (Product: Saarthi): A highly affordable handheld device for the visually impaired to manoeuvre around obstacles they encounter on daily basis. The device is attached with highly accurate sensors and provide feedback in the form of buzzing sounds and vibrating sensations.
• 22bate7 Software Pvt Ltd (Product: piCards): piCards is a low cost continuous feedback, audience polling and formative assessment solution that lets teachers assess comprehension levels in classrooms in order to improve learning outcomes.
• TouchVision Tech (Product: TouchVision): A multisensory inclusive education platform for visually impaired people to learn and thrive by fostering an inclusive world.
• CareNX Innovations Pvt. Ltd IIT Bombay (Product: SelfCervi): A device for real-time self-screening of cervical cancer
• Shira MedTech Pvt Ltd (Product: Shira Clamp): Shira Clamps are aimed to make microsurgery possible for all surgeons in all domains. It aims to prevent disability in order to protect human lives and skilled labour and prevent families from getting pushed into poverty due to salvaging limbs.

• Genrobotics Innovations (Product: Bandicoot): Bandicoot robot is a Semiautomatic robotic system for manhole and sewer line cleaning aimed at eliminating manual scavenging and positioning the pressurized water jet for cleaning sewer lines.
Winners from industrial innovations category:

• IIT Madras (Product: AQUA-FI): Adaptive underwater wireless acoustic modem, with a vision to become the world leader in underwater acoustic communication systems.
• Delectrik Systems Private Limited (Product: Redox Flow Battery): Decentralized electricity to provide Affordable and Sustainable Energy Access for everyone.
• DRIVAMP LLP (Product: Drivamp): DrivAmp Level 2 smart electric vehicle charging stations and system controllers developed with a vision to reduce the impact of pollution and create an ecosystem for sustainable transport in India and around the globe.
• Etrix Technologies Private Limited (Product: BlinkIN): An augmented reality and artificial intelligence based visual communication and assistive tool for tech support and training anytime, anywhere. A smart and intelligent system powered by AI and AR that acts as the ‘Google‘ of tech support, by delivering problem specific intelligence at the point of service as and when required.
• Irov Technologies Private Limited (Product: EyeROV): Making underwater inspections for critical infrastructure efficient and smarter. With an aim to be the leader in critical infrastructure inspection like dams, bridges, offshore structures etc. through user-friendly reports of inspected critical infrastructure and to design, manufacture and assemble in India.
• MakerInMe Technologies Private Limited (Product: Cretile): A kit of plug-n-play robotic, automation, IoT & electronic modular building blocks, making it an excellent STEM education tool. With the aim to empower creators with innovative tools to bring their dream creations into being
• Manastu Space Technologies Private Limited: Green propulsion technology for low thrust applications using premixed hydrogen peroxide and alcohols for replacement of current hydrazine based toxic mono propellant systems. Aiming to reduce the cost of access to space, to solve problems concerning humanity.
• Sastra Robotics India Private Limited (Product: SR-Dimenzio): An intelligent robot to automate real device human machine interface testing. The product aims to facilitate precise, risky and accurate jobs through realistic human arm capabilities.

The winning innovations were evaluated by an esteemed set of jury members on select parameters. Technological innovation, sustainability of the proposed solution, unique value/proposition, development status, social impact and funding required for technology development amongst others were some of the parameters.

A total of 3000 applications were received and evaluated across areas such as assistive technology, healthcare, clean energy, cyber security, data analytics, space technology, education, sanitation, internet of things, fintech etc.

In the last month, the shortlisted top 50 Open Innovation Challenge teams were invited for an intensive 1 week Boot Camp at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology said, “DST is key partner of the IIGP 2.0, a unique collaborative program to harness transformative ideas and solutions. IIGP offers an enabling platform to nurture and scale up these ideas through its national and international partners. The program enriches the innovation to commercialization value chain and strikes a balance in tapping innovations of excellence as well as relevance required for the socio-economic development of the country’’

Speaking at the event, Phil Shaw, Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin India, said, “Through the India Innovation Growth Programme, Lockheed Martin has been supporting the Indian start-up ecosystem for more than a decade and it’s never been stronger. We think this partnership is the flagship initiative for encouraging new ideas and entrepreneurship and it has helped changed the fabric of India’s start-up scene. Since the launch of the programme in 2007 more than 7,000 innovative technologies have been evaluated and we have provided 400 Indian innovators with in-depth technology, commercial training and business development support. We congratulate today’s winners and want to encourage the next wave of innovators and entrepreneurs to come forward.”

Mr. Manoj Kumar, Head, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Tata Trusts & CEO, Social Alpha said, “As we continue to build on Tata Trusts’ legacy of promoting science and technology research in India, we believe that initiatives like IIGP can open up multiple opportunities for entrepreneurs to translate their innovations into high impact solutions, that benefit the poor and underserved at scale. We are happy to announce the winners of IIGP 2.0 who have demonstrated that their high quality technology innovations have the potential to solve some of the most complex challenges that the country faces today and hope that this platform will continue to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship, improving the quality of life for millions"

Mr. Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, FICCI said, ”FICCI is proud to be associated with the India Innovation Growth Programme since its inception in 2007. I am also happy to share that FICCI is an active player in the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem and we have established close to twenty PPPs to support Indian innovators and start-ups. We support Indian entrepreneurs scale their solutions within India and globally.”
Mr. Nirankar Saxena, Deputy Secretary General, FICCI said, "We have witnessed some path breaking innovations being recognized and scaled under the IIGP over the past ten years. With the capacity building and business development support being provided under the programme, Indian entrepreneurs have been able to take their businesses to the next level in turn generating employment in the country.”

The winners will receive advanced training from leading academia for product commercialization, readiness for market, business models, Intellectual Property rights, competitive positioning and mechanisms for revenue. Additionally, training will be provided in technology commercialization strategies and entrepreneurship; analysis of commercial potential of their technology; professional business development assistance, and access to US and global investor markets.

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