A Shout Out to Tech Innovators! Take Up the Intel & DST Innovate For Digital India Challenge 2.0 The entry submission process will end in October 2016.

Ever since the inception of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious "Digital India" campaign in 2015, several initiatives have been made to spread digital literacy across the country across various categories.

Several efforts have been made to enable Indians access government schemes and services electronically. Renowned Indian companies and global multi-nationals have come down and extended their support and desire to participate in this initiative.

Working on these lines, Intel & the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India ("DST"), have come together again to foster a new wave of disruptive innovation which will help empower citizens and transforms India by announcing the Intel & DST - Innovate for Digital Challenge 2.0 ("Challenge").

This challenge will benefit from the continued support of MyGov and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ("MeitY") and will be anchored by T- Hub Foundation, among India's largest incubators.

What does the Intel-DST Challenge offer

The Innovate for Digital India Challenge 2.0 aims to foster local innovation and encourage the creation of easy to use and scalable solutions IoT and / or Data centre and / or Cloud and / or Connectivity Platform and / or Big Data and/ or Open Data and/ or Analytics.

Entrepreneurs who believe they have disruptive ideas in any of these categories must enroll themselves, thereby becoming a part of Modi's ambitious Digital India vision.

Solutions developed during the course of the challenge are to be based on Intel Architecture and should address problems faced by Indian citizens across one of the following fields: E-Governance, Agriculture Solutions / Agritech, Healthcare Solutions / Healthtech, Education Solutions, Financial Inclusion / Fintech, Manufacturing/Engineering, Services and Logistics, Sustainability including resources as water, energy, and Smart City.

Register here (link)

Here's why you need to enroll!

Startups and entrepreneurs who have registered themselves in India and have a sound team in place are eligible to participate. The startup should have a prototype or conceptual prototype to demonstrate proficiency and should develop solutions based on the Challenge Themes that are mentioned and have a scalable business plan in mind.

The startups/entrepreneurs should be willing to develop their prototypes based on Intel's Architecture and additional weightage will be given to teams who have been shortlisted at other Tech Events / competition in the last 24 months.

The Intel & DST - Innovate for Digital India Challenge 2.0 will feature advisors and mentors across industries. Up to 20 teams will be shortlisted based on predefined criteria and invited (two per team) to pitch their solutions to a panel of experts at Hyderabad and up to top ten teams will be identified at the end of this phase.

T- Hub will shortlist and invite up to top 20 teams to Hyderabad for presenting their concepts for evaluation and ten teams will be identified post this phase and at the end of this phase the selected teams will receive prototyping grants of up to Rs. 300,000.

The accelerator phase will be managed by T-Hub and will aim to develop MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) based on Intel Architecture and will include a residential boot camp at Hyderabad, virtual team management and mentoring by a panel of experts from across Government, Intel, T- Hub and Industry. At the end of this phase three teams will be identified.

The shortlisted teams will again receive grants of up to Rs. 500,000 per team along with market access support. Up to top three teams (2 per team) will be given an opportunity to visit USA for a duration of about two weeks for go-to-market support from experts in Silicon Valley^*. The winning team will be announced at the end of the event and be eligible to receive a final grant of up to Rs. 2,000,000.

You need to hurry!

The collaboration has received an overwhelming response with more than 300 applications till date. The entry submission process will end in October 2016.