Company fosters spirit of innovation and provides access to mentoring, infrastructure and investment support to India抯 rising business stars
Mumbai (BSE) – 8 December 2011 – As part of its ongoing initiative to encourage innovation in India, Tata Communications announces its support of iAccelerator, a start-up incubation programme that provides Indian technology entrepreneurs access to mentoring, infrastructure and investment support to kick start their businesses. iAccelerator is the flagship program of the Center for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM Ahmedabad. Since its inception in 2009, the program has helped launch 17 successful start-ups in the Internet/mobile domain.
Tata Communications’ senior executives will mentor the entrepreneurs to launch their ideas. In addition, Accelerator participants will also have access to the company抯 leading cloud, connectivity and collaboration tools* necessary to succeed in a global business community.
Nine start-ups have been selected for this year’s programme and have already been provided with working space, IT infrastructure, seed capital and mentoring from a team of industry experts in order to showcase their final prototype/product in front of angel investors at the end of January 2012.
Pranay Gupta, Joint CEO, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) says, “In today抯 globally connected environment it was important to support our finalists with reliable and sophisticated cloud, global connectivity and collaboration tools which is why there was no question in our mind that Tata Communications should be part of the iAccelerator programme this year. We are looking forward to seeing how the start-ups make use of their access to this world-class infrastructure to further their businesses and achieve economies of scale.”
Srinivasa Addepalli, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy, Tata Communications says, “Investing in talent and our communities is a core pillar of our business philosophy. The importance start-ups play in driving economic regeneration and innovation is unquestionable. Tata Communications is excited to work with these rising stars to help them reach their full potential.”
* Tata Communications’ iAccelerator 2011 cloud, connectivity and collaboration technology support:
Cloud: Tata Communications� InstaCompute is a pay-per-use cloud computing solution that leverages the company抯 data centres and tier-1 IP network providing start-ups with scalable and flexible access to processing power, bandwidth and storage. To learn more about InstaCompute please visit: http://iaas.tatacommunications.com/
Connectivity: Tata Communications provides cost-effective and dedicated 24X7 connectivity with provisions for expandable bandwidth. The start-ups will be connected to the global network (or world) through International leased lines and next-generation Ethernet services delivered over the Tata Global Network, which includes one of the most advanced and largest submarine cable networks, a Tier-1 IP network, with connectivity to more than 200 countries across 400 PoPs, and nearly 1 million square feet of data centre and collocation space worldwide.
Collaboration: Tata Communications offers world class collaboration solutions across audio, video and web platforms. Tata Communications has the largest network of public Telepresence rooms in the world, with over 36 public Telepresence conference locations across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and North America.Telepresence, the next generation video conferencing technology, provides a high definition environment enabling companies to emulate a face-to-face meeting regardless of where they are located in the world.
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About iAccelerator
iAccelerator is a flagship incubator programme at CIIE, designed to equip technology entrepreneurs in Internet & Mobile domain to establish well run, technically excellent and profitable companies in India. Every year, a group of tech start-ups is selected through an application process and put through a 3-month residential accelerator programme. The finalist start-ups each receive seed capital, mentoring from a team of industry experts and opportunity to showcase their prototype/product in front of early stage investors. iAccelerator is proud to have committed partners across the country in Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. The partners play an instrumental role in sponsoring the programme, selecting start-ups to co-invest in and providing invaluable mentorship, and other in-kind infrastructure and product support to the start-ups.
Some of the start-ups incubated through the iAccelerator programme in the past include Innoz, Beevolve, Hashcube, iBloom, Audech and Redanyway among others. For more details about the iAccelerator programme, please refer to www.iaccelerator.org
About CIIE, IIMA
Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) was setup at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) with support from Gujarat Government and Department of Science and Technology (Government of India) to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in India. Experience and expertise at IIMA in the areas of management, innovation, technology networks along with entrepreneurship provide the necessary impetus and intellectual basis for this initiative.
CIIE comprises of faculty, alumni and students of IIMA, mentors and service providers from the industry who span a variety of functional areas, sectoral domains and geographies and are passionately committed to helping disruptive innovations and aspiring entrepreneurs succeed commercially. CIIE enables most of what may be required by entrepreneurs through seed-funding, incubation, mentoring, training, knowledge dissemination and best practice research.
CIIE is situated in IIM Ahmedabad and carries out its incubation activities through a Section-25 company set-up to promote entrepreneurship in India. For details on CIIE抯 initiatives towards fostering entrepreneurship, please refer to www.ciieindia.org
About Tata Communications
Tata Communications is a leading global provider of a new world of communications. With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers.
The Tata Global Network includes one of the most advanced and largest submarine cable networks, a Tier-1 IP network, with connectivity to more than 200 countries across 400 PoPs, and nearly 1 million square feet of data center and collocation space worldwide.
Tata Communications� depth and breadth of reach in emerging markets includes leadership in Indian enterprise data services, leadership in global international voice, and strategic investments in South Africa (Neotel), Sri Lanka (Tata Communications Lanka Limited) and Nepal (United Telecom Limited)
Tata Communications Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India and its ADRs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. (NYSE: TCL)
Forward-looking and cautionary statements
Certain words and statements in this release concerning Tata Communications and its prospects, and other statements, including those relating to Tata Communications’ expected financial position, business strategy, the future development of Tata Communications’ operations, and the general economy in India, are forward-looking statements. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including financial, regulatory and environmental, as well as those relating to industry growth and trend projections, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Tata Communications, or industry results, to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements include, among others, failure to increase the volume of traffic on Tata Communications’ network; failure to develop new products and services that meet customer demands and generate acceptable margins; failure to successfully complete commercial testing of new technology and information systems to support new products and services, including voice transmission services; failure to stabilize or reduce the rate of price compression on certain of the company’s communications services; failure to integrate strategic acquisitions and changes in government policies or regulations of India and, in particular, changes relating to the administration of Tata Communications’ industry; and, in general, the economic, business and credit conditions in India. Additional factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, many of which are not in Tata Communications’ control, include, but are not limited to, those risk factors discussed in Tata Communications’ various filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Tata Communications is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements.
| Media Contacts: Divya Anand Tata Communications +91 89760 68777 divya.anand@tatacommunications.com |
Monica Sondhi Rediffusion/Edelman +91 77380 66622 Monica.sondhi@edelman.com |
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