A CoE in IoT in Agriculture at Guwahati, Animation at Shillong and Emerging Tech-AR/VR Launched

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) soft launched the first phase of OctaNE – A Centre of Excellence (CoE) in IoT in Agriculture at Guwahati, Animation at Shillong and Emerging Tech-AR/VR at Imphal and simultaneously launched the Open Challenge. STPIOctaNE is a ground-breaking initiative of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and managed by STPI to transform the digital profile of North-East by providing a robust startup ecosystem to rev up innovation & entrepreneurship in emerging technology.

STPIOctaNE is poised to nurture start-ups in emerging tech in a collaborative model by facilitating mentoring, funding, marketing & IPR while enabling them to address the challenges of local industry & build software products. Network of 8 STPICoEs for the North East will transform innovation & entrepreneurship in the region.

The services available for the beneficiaries of OctaNE shall include Physical infrastructure including 450-seater state-of-the-art incubation (200- Guwahati, 150-Shillong and Imphal-100). Along with E-Commerce facilitation and Tinkering Lab in each of the three centres, mentoring, financial support through seed funding, technical Support, marketing support, IPR/Patenting facilitation and legal, accounting & other support services will be provided to start-ups.

The soft-launch of “OctaNE & Idea Challenge Programme” was done by Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General, STPI and Shri Rajiv Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Govt. of India in the august presence of Shri Kumaran Venkatesh, President & Partner at AXLerate Now and Chief mentor for CoE in IoT in Agriculture, at Guwahati and Shri Biren Ghose, Country Head, Technicolor and Chief mentor for CoE in Animation at Shillong, Shri P K Das, Director, STPI-Guwahati and Shri Subodh Sachan, Director STPI HQ.

“Our CoEs are collaborative efforts of stakeholders from government, industry, academia, industry associations and state governments. In two years of time, STPI is going to be the largest startup ecosystem in the nation.” asserted Dr. Omkar Rai, DG, STPI said while delivering keynote address on the launch of OctaNE CoE.

Dr. Rai further added, “For Atmanirbhar Bharat IoT can play a key role in precision agriculture. in realising the vision of Hon’ble PM in doubling farmers’ income & North-East has the potential for sectors like agriculture, horticulture & floriculture.”

“North-East, we are providing the fundamental support to create the ecosystem for the growth of start-ups. OctaNE is the realisation of the vision of Digital North East 2022, which was launched in 2018, and our commitment for North-East. We are taking a small but a very important step today in the journey of North East Vision 2022,” said Shri Rajiv Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Govt. of India.

“There is a demand for the development of innovative products in our country. If we need to increase the GDP of the country, we have to focus on Agritech.  Agritech start-ups growing at the rate of  25 per cent YoY. Every 9^th Agritech start-up in the world is originating out of India. Huge opportunity for Agriculture IoT startups as the adoption of IoT is rising faster and it will drive change.  Adoption of tech can significantly increase farmers’ income in the country,” cited Shri. Kumaran Venkatesh, President & Partner, AXLerateNow & Chief Mentor of CoE in IoT in Agriculture at Guwahati.

“STPIOctaNE will create a robust ecosystem for startups to boost R&D, innovation & entrepreneurship in the region. Funding support will be provided to startups for cloud hosting, mentor support & IP creation ,” stated Shri Prabir Kr. Das, STPI-Director, Guwahati while sharing a presentation on STPIOctaNE.

Highly Value Partnerships

OctaNE is collaboration between industry associations, academia, and angels the model is built on a solid groundwork. Stakeholders of OctaNE are Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), STPI, STPI, STPINEXT, State Govt. of Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi) and Technology Incubation Centre (TIC), Tea Board of India.

Academia: IIT Guwahati, IIM Shillong, IIT Manipur, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, Manipur University, IIIT Guwahati, NIT Shillong, NIT Manipur, Assam Agricultural University, IIM-CIP, NIELIT Shillong, NIELIT- Guwahati,  NIELIT Imphal, Assam Don Bosco University, Toonz Animations, NIELIT Kolkata, Assam Rajiv Gandhi University, North Eastern Hill University.

Industry: Skills Tech Initiatives & Ventures P Ltd., Salt Lake City, Kolkata, DZ Engineering, Branch Office: Guwahati, Total Start Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Developers, Kolkata, Olatus Systems P Ltd., Guwahati, Webx Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Guwahati, Healthnine Technologies P Ltd., Kolkata, Lamzing Technologies P Ltd, Imphal, Edelstein Techno Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Imphal, Chillibreeze Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Shillong.