Hyderabad, 26, October, 2020: The Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Enterprise (CIIE), Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and Idealabs FutureTech Ventures today signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) for setting up Centre of Excellence in Digital Agriculture with Emerging Technologies.

The LoI was signed by Prof. Nitin R Karmalkar, Vice Chancellor, Savitribai Phule Pune University and Pankaj Diwan, Founder, Idealabs FutureTech Ventures.

The Centre of Excellence will host the first of its kind Incubation Centre exclusively for Startups in Digital Agriculture with emerging technologies. The CoE shall include a Maker Space and Digital Labs on emerging technologies. Innovation events such as Hackathons and Accelerator will be conducted across the year culminating into a Maker Faire, as part of the Annual International Conference showcasing the best innovations and startups. The CoE will also conduct skilling programmes and joint certification on emerging technologies.

Speaking on this collaboration and role of Idealabs, Mr. Pankaj Diwan, founder, Idealabs congratulated CIIE-SPPU for this thought leadership initiative at an appropriate time.

Pankaj Diwan said that, Traditional Agriculture is all set to get disrupted with emerging technologies like Blockchain, Machine Learning and Data Science by improving farm digitization, storage efficiency, supply chain, and value-added crops and many more. This requires a combination of young entrepreneurs and Innovators and support in terms of domain & technology expertise, investment and right strategies for GoToMarket.  

Speaking on the Occasion, Dr. Apoorva Palkar, Director, CIIE-SPPU said that, The Centre of Excellence on Digital Agriculture with Emerging Technologies will enable Startups, Students, Researchers to collaborate and innovate and create path breaking solutions. They will get access to latest tools, domain expertise and mentoring to take the innovative products and solutions from Lab to Farm to Market. Idealabs has the right expertise and track record to help us build and run the activities associated with this CoE.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Nitin R Karmalkar, Vice Chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University said that, We have identified Agriculture as one of the focus domains for Research and Innovation as part of our CIIE and expect this initiative to bring a meaningful impact in the Agriculture space by creating a conducive environment with the help of Idealabs.

About Idealabs

Idealabs is a Hyderabad based leading technology company and works with policy makers, corporates & universities in providing solutions for upskilling on emerging technologies, promote product thinking, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Idealabs has partnered with leading companies such as Microsoft and Tech Mahindra for Technology expertise and ICRISAT, SourceTrace and other leaders in Agriculture Domain.

Idealabs has been pioneering Academic Innovation for the last 15 years. The company has built the country’s largest academia - industry ecosystem with more than 150 industry mentors, 100+ educational institutes, multiple start-up accelerators and incubation hubs and 300K+ professionals. Idealabs group has successfully concluded 190+ innovation & technology programs and incubated 50+ new product ideas.

About CIIE- SPPU

Savitribai Phule Pune University, one of the premier universities in India, is positioned in the North-western part of Pune city. It occupies an area of about 411 acres. It was established on 10th February 1949 under the Poona University Act. The university houses 46 academic departments. It is popularly known as the 'Oxford of the East'. It has about 307 recognized research institutes and 612 affiliated colleges offering graduate and under-graduate courses to 7.5 lakh students. It has been consistently ranked amongst the top 10 Universities in the NIRF Rankings.

The Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Enterprise (CIIE) has been setup to spearhead the Innovation and Entrepreneurship culture amongst the students at the University and becomes an enabler for startups in the entire region.