SME Times News Bureau | 18 Sep, 2018
IT
industry's apex body Nasscom on Tuesday announced to double up on its efforts
and mentor 100 desi tech start-ups working in the field of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies every year.
The new
initiatives will be under a programme called "Accelerate 10X", the
second phase of "10,000 Start-ups" initiative.
"When we started '10,000 Start-ups' five years back,
our vision was clear that in 10 years, India will have an ecosystem consisting
10,000 start-ups. We started the initiative with 100 start-ups. In 2013, there
were 100 funding deals and today, there are roughly around 700," Debjani
Ghosh, President, Nasscom, told reporters.
"Over the years while India has emerged as the third
largest start-up ecosystem, our readiness to ride the next wave of deep tech
and AI revolution will determine whether India will be able to unlock the
trillion-dollar opportunity," noted Rishad Premji, Chairman, Nasscom.
"A collaborative and coherent effort is pertinent to galvanise India's
capabilities in emerging technologies and equip our demographic prowess to
power industry 4.0," Premji added.
"Prowess in deep tech and AI will be one of the main
drivers of economic competitiveness in the near future and deep tech start-ups
will drive innovation and spearhead the broad structural transformation of the
economy," said Ghosh.
"The 'Accelerate 10X' programme further reaffirms '10,000 Start-ups'
efforts in evangelising and mentoring India's latent, untapped talent in
emerging technologies," she added.