Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) celebrated its 33rd Foundation Day today, commemorating over three decades of unparalleled contributions towards the Indian technology sector in terms of software exports, as well as towards nurturing a modern tech startup ecosystem.
The event held with the theme of ‘Positioning Bharat as a Tech Product Nation’ was attended by S Krishnan, secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and Arvind Kumar, director general, STPI, as well as other dignitaries from both the government and technology industry.
To strengthen the tech startup ecosystem in terms of networking and affordable incubation space, STPI launched a networking and resource discovery platform (SayujNet) and STPI Workspace portal (STPI-Workspace). The STPI announced its initiative towards developing India’s sovereign cloud journey under the brand name ‘Ananta’, which will be a hyperscale cloud made by Indians for Indians. Apart from the conventional compute infrastructure services (IAAS), Ananta will also offer platform-as-a-service (PAAS), software-as-a-service (SaaS) and graphics processing unit (GPU) based services.
The event also saw the signing of two memoranda of understanding (MoUs) aimed at developing and nurturing a holistic ecosystem for fostering the next generation of tech start-ups in India. The first MoU was signed between Sabudh Foundation and STPI with the objective of creating skill-development initiatives and nurturing entrepreneurial training ecosystem in DeepTech. The inauguration event also saw an MoU exchange between STPINEXT initiatives and DBS Bank India Private Limited aimed at strengthening the tech startup ecosystem in India.
In addition, the event saw the launch of the DeepTech knowledge report on, ‘Cutting-Edge Tech Forging India as a Software Product Nation’, which would serve as the apparatus for transforming India into the new hub of innovation and entrepreneurship. This report will provide strategic insights into the current state of cutting-edge technologies in India, as well as the challenges and opportunities for growth and innovation.
In his address, S Krishnan, said, “Today, STPI has a greater presence in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. That is a way that prosperity spreads. What we want to achieve is to help in aggregating talent and aggregating opportunity, through the possibilities of networking and digital connectivity. STPI as an organisation is playing a pivotal role in engendering such an environment and putting together such an ecosystem, which is helping India to emerge as a product nation, both in software, software embedded products, and to some extent even in hardware. I would like to congratulate STPI for their contribution in making India truly a digital product nation. We look towards them in the coming decade to continue their good work, so that India truly achieves its growth ambitions.”
Meanwhile, Arvind Kumar, said, “Today is a proud moment for STPI. We have provided dedicated IT/ITES support since 1991, this has been made possible because of the hard work and perseverance of each member of the STPI family. We started our journey with three centres and today we have presence in 65 centres across the nation. Looking forward, our mandate from the ministry is to nurture entrepreneurship and bolster IT/ITES industries in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. We have created 24 centres of entrepreneurship and implemented the Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS), which have yielded significant breakthroughs in cutting-edge digital frontiers, while also nurturing over 1,000 startups across domains such as blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). With these initiatives, STPI continues to advance the technology industry and provide a conducive environment for entrepreneurship to prosper in India. As we celebrate the spirit of collaboration and partnership, we will continue to build upon the strong foundation laid over the previous three decades, and aim to achieve greater heights in the future.”
In addition, Tejas Goenka, managing director (MD), Tally Solutions, said, “Software products can have a tremendous Impact on the last mile when it comes to providing quality health and education services. We must all strive to create the right ambition, develop focused skillsets, and foster the dedicated attitude in our talent pool. This will create a multiplier-effect in bolstering the Indian economic growth story. I wish STPI all the very best in their journey ahead and look forward to seeing STPI achieve greater heights in the years to come.”
Further, Vishal Dhupar, MD, South Asia, NVIDIA, said, “We are in the midst of the next industrial revolution, wherein AI intends to solve humanity’s greatest problem called perception. The day is not far when digital assistance will replace your mobile. Hence, I think it is imperative to realise the true potential AI. We are confident that AI will become the critical component of the next industrial revolution and will help usher in disruptive growth that we need to see in the digital economy. We are on the cusp of some extremely interesting and significant developments, which are to happen in this sector. This is a space that needs to be watched in the coming years and watched closely. And we need to be very, very active participants in this. And STPI has its role cut out in the days to come.”
Furthermore, the inaugural event was followed by two expert panel discussions, which had themes of, “Brand Bharat: Harnessing the Power of IT/ITES for AI and Deep Tech”, and “Brand Bharat: Accelerating Design and Development of Electronic Products in India” respectively.
