Mumbai, Dec 1(AZINS) Qualcomm Incorporated today announced the launch of the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge, building on the commitment made by Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, executive chairman of Qualcomm Incorporated, when he met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Digital Economy event held in September, 2015 in San Jose, USA.

Dr. Jacobs announced Qualcomm's support for the Government of India's Digital India and Make in India vision and committed to introduce a Design in India Initiative to encourage the creation of a local product design ecosystem.

In association with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge aims to catalyze the creation of a product. It also aims at improving hardware design ecosystem in India in the domains of smartphones, tablets and Internet of Everything (IoT) products for healthcare, education, banking, agriculture, automotive, wearables and smartcities.

"We are delighted to see an industry leader like Qualcomm, joining forces and contributing to the government's Digital India vision," said J S Deepak, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India. "We look forward to seeing the Qualcomm Design in India Initiative propel more opportunities for innovation, design and development in India, which will energize the domestic hardware manufacturing ecosystem to address both domestic and global market needs.'

"Energized by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make in India vision, Qualcomm is excited to support the possibility of making India a hub for product and hardware design in the areas of smartphones, tablets and IoT," said Sunil Lalvani, Vice-President and President of Qualcomm India & South Asia. "The Qualcomm Design in India Challenge has been conceived to leverage India's vast pool of skilled engineering talent and to galvanize hardware design companies to innovate technological breakthroughs."

As a part of the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge, Qualcomm will also set up an Innovation Lab in Bangalore, through an Indian subsidiary, to provide technical and engineering support to the Indian companies in their endeavour to develop innovative ideas into products and hardware designs.

"We are happy to associate with the Qualcomm Design in India Initiative that aims to energize the product and hardware ecosystem in India, to innovate, design and create locally and to cater to the needs of local and global markets," said R. Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM. "This initiative is closely aligned with NASSCOM's own vision to 'Connect, Collaborate and Co-create', which advocates the empowerment of the Indian economy through large scale technology adoption."

Leveraging its strengths as a world leader in technology and innovation, Qualcomm aims to identify and foster game-changing product innovation, design and development and nurture entrepreneurship that furthers the development of mobile technologies and IoT in India, that will create the foundation for the government's Make in India initiative.

Registration and Application for Qualcomm Design in India Challenge start on December 1, 2015 and end on February 29, 2016.The Challenge is open to all India-based individual companies or start-ups with a minimum of one year of operation which can demonstrate hardware designs for smartphones, tablets, wearables and products for smart cities. Up to 10 shortlisted companies will be eligible for funding of $10,000 each to proceed to the prototyping phase and will be incubated at the state-of-the-art Qualcomm Innovation Lab for nearly six months.