Smart City Startup challenge for start-ups

The programme is envisioned to support and scale start-ups that are building sustainable, inclusive and innovative solutions for smart cities. The month-long programme gives selected start-ups an opportunity to pitch to smart city technology MNCs, smart city officials and the winner will get an equity-free grant of Rs 10 lakh for further development.

According to Ramesh Loganathan, Professor, Co-Innovation and Head, Research/Innovation Outreach, The Smart City Living Lab is an attempt to discover cutting edge innovations with smart city use cases and enrich them with knowledge from research. This Start-up Challenge will help discover innovations to enable smart cities, and the winning teams will get capital, network and knowledge support.

The focus areas for the challenge are water, waste, safety & security, health and energy. Any start-ups with solutions or products with smart city use cases can apply, especially tech start-ups working with products with smart city use cases, market ready products with or without customers (revenue is desirable), expertise in commercially deploying the solution and research with market ready products. Application deadline is June 1.

Smart City technology can make cities more effective and efficient, which is necessary given the projected rapid growth in urban populations over the next few decades. Living labs is all about using technology and data purposefully to make better decisions and deliver a better quality of life. By connecting start-ups with those searching for smart city solutions, the programme will amplify the transformation of city infrastructure.

Living Labs is also currently running the Water challenge in association with the Telangana government and the NIUM to find viable solutions to the problems faced regarding water quality, supply and non-revenue water by cities in the state.

--IANS ms/vd

( 323 Words)

2021-05-06-22:18:03 (IANS)