Kerala based Techgentsia Software Technologies wins innovation challenge for developing video conference solution

New Delhi: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday (August 20) announced the results of the Grand Challenge for Developing Video Conference Solution. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had announced an Innovation Challenge for Development of a Video Conferencing Solution under the Digital India Initiative on 12th April 2020. 

The Innovation Challenge was open for participation from Industry, start-ups, and individual experts. The overwhelming response was received across the country, with a total of 1983 applications being received, which were evaluated and subsequently supported through a three-stage process- Ideation, Prototype, and Product Stage, according to an official statement. 

Announcing the winners of the Grand Challenge, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “I am delighted that Indian entrepreneurs and innovators have responded to the clarion call for AatmaNirbhar Bharat given by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India and have come up with some world-class video conferencing solutions in a short span of four months. 

"We are committed to develop India’s software product and mobile app economy in a big way and efforts like this will go a long way in that direction,” he added.

Out of these, 12 applicants with innovative VC solutions were shortlisted to develop/mature the prototype for which support of Rs 10 lakh each was provided. The prototypes so evolved were further evaluated by the eminent Jury comprising senior officers of the Government, reputed academicians, and eminent members from the IT industry to shortlist five applicants for building a ready to market product, said the IT ministry. 

The five shortlisted applicants were further provided financial support of Rs 20 lakh (for three) and Rs 15 lakh (for two), mentorship, testing and onboarding onto NIC cloud. Jury and Mentors comprising of eminent experts from Industry, Academia and government-provided extensive support to the Challenge on pro bono basis. The five finalists have pitched the solution and the Jury which evaluated each of these products in detail and declared the winners.

The jury declared Vconsol, a product of Alappuzha (Kerala) based Techgentsia Software Technologies Private Limited as the winner. The winner of the challenge will be provided financial support of Rs 1 crore with an additional Rs 10 Lakhs towards O&M for the next three years and will be adopted for use by Government through a contract.

In addition, the Jury also selected the products developed by three applicants as potential products and decided to offer a developmental contract to be supported by Rs 25 Lakh each for further maturing their product within a period of three months. These three products will be further analyzed by a technical committee and subsequently, the Ministry of Electronics and IT will recommend onboard all selected four products on GeM. 

Details of these three products are: 

1. Sarv Webs Pvt. Ltd. (Sarv Wave), Jaipur
2. PeopleLink Unified Communications Pvt Ltd (Insta VC), Hyderabad
3. InstriveSoftlabsPvt Ltd (HydraMeet), Chennai
 
These video conferencing products will also be provided and support of STQC, CERT-In, CDAC, and NIC. It has also been recommended that all four products will be hosted on the NIC cloud and NIC will facilitate for the adoption of these products for government use through GeM. Notably, all teams including the winning team shall also be free to market the product globally.