Sonata Software and NIT Trichy partner to promote student innovation and entrepreneurship

Sonata Software, a global IT software services and technology solutions company and National Institute of Technology (NIT) Trichy, one of the top 10 technology institutions in the country, announced a partnership to promote student innovation and entrepreneurship.  As per the terms of this partnership, Sonata Software will use its resources to support the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development and Incubation (CEDI), NIT Trichy in incubating and developing next generation entrepreneurs. This joint initiative will also be a significant step in strengthening the Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) program of Ministry of Communications & IT.

The Innovation and the Entrepreneurship Development activities of NIT Trichy are spearheaded by CEDI, a Section 8 company, promoted by the Institute. CEDI is involved in a variety of activities and initiatives spanning the entire value chain of promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. These include awareness creation, education and training, providing platforms for validating innovative ideas, business plan development, and importantly incubation support along with seed funding.

This is a unique venture from Sonata to promote technology innovation and entrepreneurship programs for students in an educational institute of great repute. In addition to technical and managerial support, Sonata will commit significant funding to the extent of INR 12 million for three years beginning 2014-15 to CEDI NIT Trichy to support technology business incubation.

Srikar Reddy, CEO, Sonata Software and NIT Trichy alumnus said, “Sonata has always believed in harnessing technology for innovation and fostering an entrepreneurship culture. Our business is powered by many young employees who focus on taking new age solutions to our customers. This partnership helps us in engaging with innovation and encouraging entrepreneurship right at the college. I am pleased to partner with my alma mater NIT Trichy for this initiative.”

Dr. S. Sundarrajan, Director, NIT Trichy, said, “Innovative new IT products and services are reshaping the way the world works. The efforts of CEDI NIT Trichy is to encourage students to hone their skills and make things happen in emerging technology spaces in a well guided environment and process. We are happy that Sonata could commit its resources and expertise to this activity. Their experience in taking IT products and services to market will add a clear edge to the advice and support our incubatees will receive.”

Some of the areas identified in which the Sonata funding will be used by CEDI are:

• Facilitating students to work on new  technologies
• Promoting ideation within CEDI-NIT Trichy Campus for the students of all technology institutes
• Project teams to work on innovative ideas
• Assisting the CEDI Incubatee companies in developing products and services and taking them to

market

• Incubation funding

The technology areas identified for priority effort under the program are e-Commerce, SMAC (Social, Mobility, Analyticsand Cloud) and IOT (internet of things) based products and platforms.