In a bid to boost the start-up ecosystem in Andhra Pradesh, Government of Andhra Pradesh in collaboration with NASSCOM 10,000 start-ups and Idealabs has today announced the launch of MakeInAP. A first of its kind unique initiative of Government – Industry - Academia Partnership, the program will provide a platform for students, young professionals and start-ups to interact with established corporates, leading technology companies and industry mentors to build collective capabilities for the industry in the cutting-edge areas of advanced technologies.

NASSCOM along with the Government of Andhra Pradesh, through this initiative, aims to tap the potential of emerging technologies like AI/ML, Blockchain, IoT, Cyber Security to uncover start-ups and seed a culture of innovation, entrepreneurship and product development amongst students and young professionals in the region.

The program will further provide an opportunity for start-ups to interface with corporates, leading technology companies and government to find innovative solutions and get an understanding of problem solving and other challenges in building scalable businesses. Nurturing in the form of strategic consulting, incubation, leadership coaching at every growth stage will be provided along with access to markets and support in raising funds.

Providing a platform for promising start-ups to explore, innovate, scale and solve for challenges of the future, the program will forge strategic partnerships with global Leaders in Start-up Acceleration and Mentoring, such as AP Innovation Valley, IBM, Google for entrepreneurs, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon Webservices, Franklin Templeton, ICRISAT and Kotak.

Speaking at the Curtain Raiser Day of MakeinAP at Amaravati, K S Viswanathan, Vice President, Industry Initiatives, NASSCOM said, “The Indian IT Industry is moving from a pre-dominantly service-oriented approach to a more innovation driven Product centric approach.

There is a wave of entrepreneurship and innovation like never before and the Government of Andhra Pradesh is at the forefront of adopting new solutions, promoting the innovation ecosystem in the state to find applications for emerging technologies in real work scenarios.The joint initiative will serve as a platform for intelligence-sharing and technology collaboration between stakeholders, evangelizing and mentoring India’s latent, untapped talent in emerging technologies and to build collective capabilities in the field of AI/ML, Blockchain, IoT and other advanced technologies in the state.”

In order to improve employability in the region, the initiative aims to create a platform of proactive and entrepreneurial candidates for startups and corporates to tap into the talent pool and assist policy makers understand and assess the ecosystem challenges at grassroot level to develop policies and support for improving the entrepreneurship culture in the state. A special recruitment drive will also be conducted for the participants and product companies will get access to and be invited to tap into this pool of young talented professionals.

As a part of a five month program, MakeInAP, will go live in every region (broadly categorised into three regions: Amaravati Region, Vizag Region and Tirupati Region) with an Innovation day - a confluence of industry leaders, academicians, startups and policy makers. Imparting a focused push across key functional domains such as Retail, Agriculture, Finance & Insurance, Open Ideas, Transport, Education and healthcare, a series of online and offline Bootcamps and Hackathons will be launched in the Engineering Colleges of respective region on emerging technologies like AI/ML, Blockchain, IoT, Cyber Security.

Kick-starting today at the Curtain Raiser Day of MakeinAP at Amaravati, the program witnessed participation from some of top industry and corporate leaders such as Mr. Pankaj Diwan, CEO, Idealabs FutureTech Ventures, Mr. Rama Iyer – India CEO, Eleven01, Mr. Sanjeev Malhotra, CEO, CoE-IoT and AI, NASSCOM, Mr. Srikanth Srinivasan – Regional Director, NASSCOM, Mr. Vijay Bawra – Regional Head – AP& TS, NASSCOM 10,000 startups, Mr. Naveen Dupala – Director – Investments, Franklin Templeton and Mr. Alok Tiwari – Product Manager, ORACLE.

Over the course of the next five months, the program, supported by NASSCOM 10,000 start-ups and Idealabs, will witness participation from over 150 academic leaders, more than 100 Industry guests from leading companies and start-ups from across India, policy makers from different states and Industry bodies. More than 50 corporates and 100+ mentors have been on-boarded for the initiative by NASSCOM and Idealabs and more than 15,000 such participants are expected in the next five months.

There are a bouquet of rewards and Incentives for deserving candidates, start-ups and winners of MakeinAP initiative. The incentives include: Prizes up to INR 10,00,000; Opportunity to pitch to Investors and corporates for funding, Acquihire and solution adoption; Paid PoC with corporates and government; Product hours by Product Leaders; Architecture hours by Google and Facebook; Incubation and Mentoring with NASSCOM 10,000 Startups and Idealabs and recruitment with leading Product companies and startups. Further top teams will also be taken through a specially designed Accelerator by NASSCOM 10,000 Startups and Idealabs.