AsianScientist (Dec. 16, 2014) – XPRIZE, a global innovation competition, will launch multiple prizes in India over the next few years. The prizes will be in the areas of water, energy, waste management and food & nutrition, with an anticipated first prize addressing water sustainability, to launch in 2015 with the support of Coca-Cola India.
Bringing together corporate leaders and philanthropists, an XPRIZE “Visioneering” event saw XPRIZE Trustees working together in brainstorming sessions to identify which of India’s Grand Challenges can best be solved through incentivized prize competitions.
Mr. Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus, Tata Sons and trustee at XPRIZE, along with Mr. Naveen Jain, founder & CEO of Inome, and Mr. Paresh Ghelani, chairman, BPG Motors have been great supporters of XPRIZE and active in bringing XPRIZE to India.
Tata said, “We are bringing XPRIZE to India with the belief that the next big innovations to solve some of the world’s Grand Challenges will come from India, directly impacting millions of people at the base of the pyramid. Through XPRIZE, we want to tap into this promise of potential and possibility.”
“We chose India as the first geographic location outside of the US to launch our global development prizes because we believe India has a technological and entrepreneurial capacity like no other country in the world,” said Ms. Zenia Tata, program director, global expansion, XPRIZE. “India is also going to provide XPRIZE the platform to meet Grand Challenges on a global scale and we are very excited about the impact we believe we are going to create.”
Tata, Jain and Ghelani are among a list of XPRIZE Trustees that includes Elon Musk, Larry Page, James Cameron, Arianna Huffington, Ali Velshi, Wendy Schmidt, Ray Kurzweil and Anousheh Ansari. Deloitte is the knowledge partner for XPRIZE in India.
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Source: XPRIZE.
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