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STPI To Set Up 21 CoEs In Emerging Tech Across India

STPI is in the process of setting up 21 CoEs in emerging technologies across the country.

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The Indian Startup Ecosystem has witnessed a momentous growth in recent years and there’s an even bigger potential for development and innovation in this space. Realizing this, the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) on Tuesday launched “IoT OpenLab” a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in IoT at Bengaluru in association with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). STPI is in the process of setting up 21 CoEs in emerging technologies across the country, including areas as artificial intelligence (AI), Blockchain, IoT, analytics, medical technology, automation, to name a few.

“Of the 21, three Centers of Excellence (CoEs) are already functioning. These include- Electropreneur Park at Delhi, FinBlue at Chennai and NEURON at Mohali. The rest are likely to be operational in the next two years,” STPI officials told CXOToday.

The IoTOpenLab could be a huge opportunity for the startups who want to build innovative IoT products and solutions. The CoE will focus on creating a robust ecosystem in a collaborative model to nurture startups and drive R&D, innovation & product development in IoT focused on sectors like Defence, Aeronautics, Industrial, Agriculture, Health, Automotive and Education, among others.

The CoE will onboard five hundred startups that will become part of the 12-24 months of programs. The programs will include technical, business and strategic mentoring. The center will bring together the industry users, technology creators, system integrators and enterprise partners for development and adoption of innovative solutions to the real-world problems.

Supported by IESA &TiE (Industry Association Partners), the CoE will provide network opportunities to startups, PES Institute of Technology and RV College of Engineering (Academic Partners) to provide academic expertise & mentoring to the startups and Cyber Media & Forum Synergy (VC/Angel Partners) to provide funding access & opportunities to the startups. The industry partnership covers Intel, NXP, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, STM, TE Connectivity, Onsemi, Kyocera, Analog Devices, Silicon Labs, Molex, Vishay, Microchip, Infineon.

TiE and Arrow Electronics are the key partners of the OpenLab. They both, along with others, are looking at combining the world-class facilities and well connected mentors with the startups to create unique and amazing IoT product offerings.

Recalling the challenges, Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General, STPI, said, “The only bottleneck that this journey had, was to collaborate with the right people. We want this initiative to be a huge success for the entrepreneurs in our country and we wanted no compromise in the quality of mentorship we provide.”

Sharing his plans for the year ahead, Rai said, “There is another scheme which is going to be rolled out by the Ministry of IT. The timeline is yet to be decided. The scheme is called Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS). It is going to nurture and shape the journey of entrepreneurs based in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. It will be providing funding to the budding entrepreneurs and training them to be the successful ones.”

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