Ratan Tata Brings XPRIZE To India
XPRIZE, a global leader in incentivized prize competition,announced a formal expansion into India today at an event in Mumbai attended by some of India’s most influential business leaders including Mr Ratan Tata among other business leaders.
XPRIZE announced plans to launch multiple prizes in India over the next few years in the areas of water, energy, waste management, and food & nutrition, with an anticipated first prize addressing water sustainability, to launch in 2015 with the support of Coca-Cola India.
Guests at the event participated in an XPRIZE “Visioneering” process, where corporate leaders, philanthropists, heads of innovation and XPRIZE Trustees worked together in an unique series of brainstorming sessions to identify which of India’s Grand Challenges can best be solved through incentivized prize competitions.
Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus, Tata Sons and trustee at XPRIZE, along with Naveen Jain, founder & CEO of Inome, and Paresh Ghelani, chairman, BPG Motors have been great supporters of XPRIZE and active in bringing XPRIZE to India. Mr. Tata said, “ We are bringing XPRIZE to India with the belief that the next big innovations to solve some of the world’s Grand Challenges will come from India, directly impacting millions of people at the base of the pyramid. Through XPRIZE, we want to tap into this promise of potential and possibility.”
“We chose India as the first geographic location outside of the U.S. to launch our global development prizes because we believe India has a technological and entrepreneurial capacity like no other country in the world,” said Zenia Tata, program director, global expansion, XPRIZE.“India is also going to provide XPRIZE the platform to meet scale and we are very excited about our global expansion and the impact we believe we are going to create.”
“Coca-Cola India is pleased to support the first XPRIZE in India in the area of water, reflecting Coca-Cola’s overarching commitment to water sustainability,” said Venkatesh Kini, president of Coca-Cola India and South West Asia. “We are excited about this partnership and through it we hope to bring forth innovative solutions to the pressing issue of water sustainability to positively impact millions of lives in India and across the globe.”
Mr. Tata, Mr. Jain, and Mr. Ghelani are among a list of XPRIZE Trustees that includes Elon Musk, Larry Page, James Cameron, Arianna Huffington, Ali Velshi, Wendy Schmidt, Ray Kurzweil, and Anousheh Ansari. Deloitte is the knowledge partner for XPRIZE in India.
Founded in 1995, XPRIZE is the leading organization solving the world’s Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prizes in five areas: Learning; Exploration; Energy & Environment; Global Development; and Life Sciences. Active prizes include the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE, the $15M Global Learning XPRIZE, the $10M Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, and the $2M Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE.
