Western Digital Hosts ‘Data Innovation Bazaar’ in Association with ‘Startup India’ and ‘Invest India’

Western Digital, a leading data infrastructure provider, today announced that it hosted the Data Innovation Bazaar in collaboration with Startup India and Invest India. The initiative offered a unique platform to recognize the best innovative minds from across India, and showcase their ideas and concepts to leverage the power of data. The Data Innovation Bazaar was launched with a focus on identifying data-driven solutions to priority challenges in the five identified sectors: Education, Renewable Energy, Healthcare, Transportation and Mobility, and Cleantech.

Western Digital teamed up with Startup India, a flagship initiative of the government of India and Invest India, to support development of an ecosystem for emerging entrepreneurs and startups. Data Innovation Bazaar acts as an aggregator that brings together government alliances, businesses and innovators on a unique platform.

“From the world’s first helium-filled hard drive to the latest advancements in 3D NAND technology, we at Western Digital continue to drive innovation to shape the future of data. Data Innovation Bazaar is a way of harnessing technology to inspire the next generation of game-changing and innovative thinking, by realizing the possibilities of data. This is a significant milestone in our partnership with the government of India and its strategic initiatives, including Invest India and Startup India, and is a testament to our commitment of fueling innovation for a better and a newer India. I congratulate the teams for their enthusiastic response to the Data Innovation Bazaar challenge and wish them the very best,” said Dr. Siva Sivaram, executive vice president of silicon technology and manufacturing, Western Digital.

“We are excited to host this unique, nationwide Innovation Challenge in collaboration with ‘Invest India’ & ‘Startup India’. Through Data Innovation Bazaar, we showcase how data-driven innovations are having a profound impact on India and the world. This initiative is aligned to Western Digital India’s strategic imperatives of Investing in India as a market, social transformation, academic collaboration and inspiring innovation in the startup community. Congratulations to the winners of the Data Innovation Bazaar,” said Supria Dhanda, vice president and India country manager, Western Digital.

Deepak Bagla, managing director and CEO, Invest India said, “I am delighted that Invest India and Startup India are partnering with Western Digital on Data Innovation Bazaar, an innovation challenge aimed at providing a platform for young entrepreneurs and the youth of India to innovate and provide solutions to transform and build a New India.”

The challenge, which commenced on September 19th, encouraged the creation of solutions and products that use the power of data to address the issues identified by the following problem statements:

1. Create initiatives that seek to provide affordable, sustainable enrolment and access to educational programs at scale
2. Develop new models of improving air quality in urban areas
3. Establish affordable, effective systems of access to scalable, quality healthcare and healthcare records
4. Create solutions that seek to provide safe and smart mobility in the transportation sector
5. Develop effective and affordable uses of clean and renewable energy in everyday use and applications

Winners were unveiled on 12 December 2018 at Data Innovation Bazaar event, which was held at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi. Members of Western Digital India executive leadership, academia, and government, including Ramesh Abhishek, IAS and Secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, attended the event.

Approximately 520 applications were received, with 40 outstanding teams shortlisted for final judging. A2P Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd., whose submission focused on the Renewable Energy sector, was awarded first place and earned a prize of INR 10 lakhs. The second-place prize of INR 7 lakhs was awarded to SM Learning Skills Academy for Special Needs Pvt. Ltd. and their innovative healthcare-related idea. Third-place prize of INR 5 lakhs, was awarded to BlinkEYELABS Electronics Pvt. Ltd. for their submission focused on the Transportation and Mobility sector.

Other outstanding submissions in the top 10 included Castle Advanced Technologies and Systems Pvt. Ltd., Gigacure Healthcare Analytics Pvt. Ltd., mBreath Technologies, Monosha Biotech, Phase Laboratories Pvt. Ltd., Skincurate Research Pvt. Ltd., and YuTu Electronics Pvt. Ltd.

The top 10 recognized teams are invited to be a part of Western Digital’s Innovation Boot Camp to be held at the company’s Data Innovation Centre in Bangalore in February 2019. The boot camp will serve as a platform for the winning teams to network with investors and industry leaders to further develop and refine their ideas. The teams will also have the opportunity to engage with the company’s leaders for three days of learning, development and concept refinement.