Michelin Launches AI Startup Challenge with DPIIT

Key Highlights:

• Michelin and DPIIT launch India's first AI Startup Challenge.
• The 12-week challenge on Startup India portal mentors leading AI startups.
• The aim is to enhance manufacturing with AI and robotics for better quality and safety.
• The initiative fosters collaboration to advance India's manufacturing capabilities.

Michelin has partnered with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to launch the sector's first AI Startup Challenge. The main aim of this partnership is to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.

The AI Startup Challenge aims to select, mentor, and collaborate with India's leading AI startups. This 12-week competition, hosted on the Startup India portal, allows entrepreneurs to submit proposals that showcase their capabilities. Selected firms will be mentored, and the top eight will present their ideas at a demo day in Delhi this September.

Michelin will pay the top three entrepreneurs for pilot projects worth up to Rs 5 lakh each and opportunities for long-term worldwide contracts and incubation support from Michelin leadership. 

This effort will be implemented in stages, beginning with outreach and applications in July 2024, followed by shortlisting and mentorship until September 2024. The grand finale will see the shortlisted startups present their solutions to a panel of judges from Startup India and Michelin India.

Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, DPIIT, stated, "Michelin and Startup India, through the AI Challenge, invite Indian startups to co-build technical solutions using large language models for business use cases. The Michelin AI Startup Challenge provides possibilities to create solutions in manufacturing, supply chain, operational software, and infrastructure that use AI and robots to enhance production processes, improve product quality, increase safety, and minimize failures."

Sumeet Kumar Jarangal, Director of DPIIT, discussed the relevance of AI and the government's focus on advanced manufacturing and automation. He thanked the Michelin team on creating a program that is entirely aligned with the nation's objectives.

The objective is that the AI competition would encourage Indian startups to collaborate on solutions in manufacturing, supply chain, operating software, and infrastructure.

The AI challenge is also a crucial component of Michelin's larger innovation program in India, which focuses on promoting partnerships with Indian businesses in digitalization, commercialization, mobility, new materials, and sustainability.

This relationship between DPIIT and Michelin India serves as a crucial catalyst in providing manufacturing startups with a platform to pilot and fine-tune their innovations, allowing startups to participate more fully in the manufacturing ecosystem. It will also catalyze furthering Bharat's standing as a manufacturing nation through public-private partnerships.

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CMV360 Says

The partnership between DPIIT and Michelin India marks a crucial step in offering manufacturing startups a platform to pilot and refine their technologies. 

It promotes larger participation in the manufacturing ecosystem by startups and strengthens Bharat's position as a manufacturing nation through public-private partnerships.