Lot of brands have joined the “Make in India” initiative started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the latest name on the ever expanding list is the semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm. Joining the bandwagon, Qualcomm Incorporated’s (NASDAQ : QCOM) executive chairman Paul E Jacobs has announced their support for Digital India and Make In India campaigns and plan to create local product design ecosystem.
J S Deepak, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India said, “We are delighted to see an industry leader like Qualcomm, joining forces and contributing to the government’s Digital India vision. 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.”
Sunil Lalvani, Vice President and President of Qualcomm India & South Asia said, “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. 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 Points Associated With 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.
- Up to 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 endeavor to develop innovative ideas into products and hardware designs.
In due course of time many big brands like Xiaomi, OnePlus, Sony and Oppo among others have been associated with Make In India initiative. It is a good thing altogether as producing the products and services here in India will lead to positive atmosphere and also channelize other brands to make better products as competition is sure going to be touch enough in the coming days. Qualcomm’s announcement is a big deal as it will significantly affect the production costs and smartphone prices are going to be much more competitive.