Startup village inks MoU with Finnish varsity

The Startup Village, India’s first telecom incubator in the PPP mode, sealed a path-breaking technological collaboration with Finland’s Aalto Centre for Entrepreneurship (ACE) on Friday, giving a cutting edge to its aspiration to churn out billion-dollar startups on Indian campuses.

Sanjay Vijayakumar, chairperson of the governing board of the Startup Village, inked the MoU with Tapio Siik, head of ACE, in the presence of a host of dignitaries of a high-level delegation led by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), currently visiting Finland. The tie-up, formalised at Espoo, marks a milestone in the Indo-Finnish efforts to strengthen the bilateral relations in the field of technology, initiated by both the governments, with the formation of a joint working group and the visit of ministerial delegations.

The MoU is expected to give a massive fillip to the joint drive for future innovations by harnessing Finland’s prowess in product technology and India’s frugal innovations.

The Indian delegation is co-led by Arabinda Mitra, head of (IC-B), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, and by H K Mittal, advisor and head of the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) under the DST.

The collaboration will facilitate joint innovations in the field of technology, science-based business creation and technology transfer, besides giving the Indian startups an exposure to cutting edge product technologies. The two parties will also explore exchange programs by hosting ACE mentors in the field of technology.

The two parties will find ways for the Startup Village to host Aalto’s AppCampus and other events, an initiative which can be highly beneficial for the startup companies across India. AppCampus is a $24-million mobile application program jointly set up by world leaders Nokia and Microsoft and managed by ACE.

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