“Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation Institute (EDII), Govt. of Tamil Nadu and Forge signed a MoU to plan, finance, operate and manage a 5-year strategic program called Startup Activation and Acceleration Program (SAAP). This state level program is aimed at discovering, nurturing, and funding innovative ideas that have the potential to become innovative products and successful enterprises.
Forge is an Innovation Accelerator program launched by the Coimbatore Innovation and Business Incubator (CIBI). CIBI – is a Technology Business Incubator catalysed and supported by Department of Science and Technology (GoI), and promoted by the RAF setup the Sakthi Group through the Kumaraguru College of Technology.
In order to activate a strong pipeline of innovative ideas that aim to solve the most pressing problems faced by consumers, citizens, government, industry, and planet, EDII and Forge are launching the Tamil Nadu Innovation Grand Challenge (TN IGC 2017) program to seed the next generation of breakthrough ideas that apply the power of technology to offer innovative solutions. As the first step of the TN IGC 2017, a series of 1-day workshops called ThinkTanks are being organised to facilitate an intensive brainstorming discussion between industry/sector executives, entrepreneurs, investors, end customers etc. The primary objective of these workshops is to deep dive into the target sector and identify & validate problem statements that are truly worth solving. In addition also document additional information that will fast-track the managed innovation process, made more outcomes-oriented, and cost effective.
Recently, ThinkTank chaired by Shajeevana, Additional Director, EDII-TN, and in the presence of a working core group of entrepreneurs & experts with experience in the technological, policy making, commercial, and research & development areas of Agri came together to envision a strategy and roadmap for catalysing innovation in the area of Precision Agriculture. Dr. Arunkumar Ramasamy, Director Agri Intex, CODISSIA set the stage for the day with an insightful Master class on the topic ‘Precision Farming – Opportunities for Innovation and Enterprise’. Students, researchers and educators of TN Agricultural University – Coimbatore, Vanavarayar Institute of Agriculture, Kumaraguru Institute of Agriculture, Kongu Engineering College, Kumaraguru College of Technology etc. attended and actively participated in the ideation and planning workshops to define the Minimum Viable Products (MVP) for precision agri solutions by leveraging tools and platforms offered by OSE (Open Source Ecology). Dr. Arunkumar Arumugam, MD of iVyukthi Solutions, summarised the insights that emerged from the workshops and specifically highlighted the many critical factors relating to the behavioural aspects of farmers as related to risk perception, barriers to adoption, and influence of stereotypes that could prove make or break for innovators.
“The ThinkTank has set the stage for Forge to put into action a systematic and professionally managed innovation and enterprise creation process that results in the development, deployment, and commercialisation of indigenous Precision Agri solutions. Now they are working closely with core members of CODISSIA to initiate fabrication of OSE tools and platforms, and potentially setup an Innovation Lab for Precision Agriculture attached to the FORGE.FACTORY, 10,000 sq.ft hub incubator in KCT Tech Park. After a series of hackathons, intensive prototyping activity and demos, new startups or MSMEs selected for the 6 months FORGE. FIRST incubation and grant funding program. Post incubation program the Startups shall pitch to raise Seed capital for setting up the production, distribution, sales and retail of their innovative Precision Agri products”, said Vishwanathan (Vish) Sahasranamam, Co-founder & CEO of Forge.