Swedish telecom equipment and services provider Ericsson recently launched Ericsson Innovation Awards in association with the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) to recognise innovation among students at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). With these awards, Ericsson aims to facilitate innovative projects from these engineering students and support some deserving ventures all the way through to their incubation phase at IIT-approved technology business incubators. In an interview with BusinessLine , Chris Houghton, Head, Ericsson India, shares more on the plans going forward with such programmes. Edited excerpts:

Tell us more about the Ericsson’s MoU with IITs? Will it be a global initiative or limited within India?

We have initiated the Ericsson Innovation Awards in collaboration with FITT to recognise the spirit of innovation among students at IITs. We have invited project proposals in select areas from IIT students across Chennai, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Mumbai, Roorkee and Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi for this programme.

Ericsson does run Global Innovation Awards for students in other parts of the world. However, this programme does not tie in with the global programme in terms of modalities, but spirit, yes.

What is your idea behind doing this?

With this, we are seeking to promote the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.

We feel that innovation is synonymous to progression and will catalyse economic development in the country.

The unique proposition of this initiative is the fact that the IP for the project will remain with students. Thus, this project promotes innovation beyond mere recognition in terms of the award, but supports the innovation idea right through till incubation.

How are you planning to shape this? Will it be a regular programme?

We have started this programme with seven premier engineering institutes. Next year, if the programme elicits the response we expect from students, we will grow the programme in scope and scale.

How important is India as market for you as far as Innovation and R&D is concerned? How much does it contribute to your global corporation?

The R&D centres in India contribute significantly to global product development .We have around 1,700 employees working in the R&D area. India R&D operations are spread across three state-of-the-art facilities at Chennai, Gurgaon and Bangalore.

We have an LTE and 3G laboratory in Gurgaon, IP and Broadband centre in Bangalore and a Charging System centre in Chennai that works on prepaid systems, multi mediation, applied research and consumer information management.

Do you plan to run more such programme? Apart from India, are you doing similar things in other countries as well?

We will grow this programme going forward in terms of scale and scope. We are committed to such partnerships and running many campus programmes around the world to encourage innovation.

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