Qualcomm announces Design in India to support Make in India

Chipset maker Qualcomm has formed an alliance with NASSCOM for the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge. Qualcomm will sets up Qualcomm Innovation Lab in Bangalore to incubate shortlisted Indian companies with dedicated technical and engineering support for hardware design and development. With this initiative, up to 10 shortlisted companies will be eligible for funding of up to $10,000 each, to enable them to translate ideas to working prototypes.

Read the complete press release below

Qualcomm Incorporated today announced the launch of the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge, building on the commitment made by Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, executive chairman of Qualcomm Incorporated, when he met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Digital Economy event held in September, 2015 in San Jose, USA. Dr. Jacobs announced Qualcomm’s support for the Government of India’s Digital India and Make in India vision and committed to introduce a Design in India Initiative to encourage the creation of a local product design ecosystem.

In association with the National Association of Software and Services Companies, the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge aims to catalyze the creation of a product and hardware design ecosystem in India in the domains of smartphones, tablets and Internet of Everything (IoT) products for healthcare, education, banking, agriculture, automotive, wearables and smartcities. 

“We are delighted to see an industry leader like Qualcomm, joining forces and contributing to the government’s Digital India vision,” said J S Deepak, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India. “We look forward to seeing the Qualcomm Design in India Initiative propel more opportunities for innovation, design and development in India, which will energize the domestic hardware manufacturing ecosystem to address both domestic and global market needs.’ 

“Energized by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India vision, Qualcomm is excited to support the possibility of making India a hub for product and hardware design in the areas of smartphones, tablets and IoT,” said Sunil Lalvani, vice president and President of Qualcomm India & South Asia. “The Qualcomm Design in India Challenge has been conceived to leverage India’s vast pool of skilled engineering talent and to galvanize multitudes of indigenous hardware design companies to innovate technological breakthroughs that we hope will help bridge industrial, infrastructural and societal gaps in India.” 

Key Highlights of Qualcomm Design in India Challenge

• Registration and Application for Qualcomm Design in India Challenge start on December 1, 2015 and end on February 29, 2016.
• The Challenge is open to all India-based individual companies or start-ups with a minimum of one year of operation which can demonstrate hardware designs for smartphones, tablets, wearables and products for smart cities, automotive & telematics, robotics and devices for the IoT ecosystem.
• Up to 10 shortlisted companies will be eligible for funding of $10,000 each to proceed to the prototyping phase and will be incubated at our state-of-the-art Qualcomm® Innovation Lab for nearly six months.
• Upto three  companies with the most promising products will be selected by an eminent judging panel as winners and each will receive up to $100,000 as recognition and encouragement for future efforts.

 

As part of the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge, Qualcomm will also set up an Innovation Lab in Bangalore, through an Indian subsidiary, to provide technical and engineering support to the Indian companies in their endeavour to develop innovative ideas into products and hardware designs.