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Press Release -- December 11th, 2012
Source: Tata Communications
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IIM-A, CIIE and Tata Communications join forces to nurture

‘iAccelerator’ empowers start-ups by offering infrastructure, investment support and mentorship

Ahmedabad (BSE) & New York (NYSE) – December 11th 2012 – Tata Communications, a leading provider of a New World of Communications, today announces its association with iAccelerator for the second consecutive year. A development programme for entrepreneurs and start-ups, iAccelerator is the flagship programme of the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Since its inception in 2009, the programme has supported 27 successful start-ups in the Internet and mobile space. Tata Communications continues to pledge its support to the programme by providing funding, mentorship and infrastructure, as part of its on-going initiative to nurture excellence and innovation in India.

This year, the participating eight start-ups will go through a three-month residential program, where experts from Tata Communications and the industry will mentor them on business, infrastructure and investment. Beyond mentorship, Tata Communications will also provide International lease line and video conferencing tools to help the start-ups achieve their business goals for the programme.

Srinivasa Addepalli, Chief Strategy Officer, Tata Communications, says, “We’re very keen to help transform great ideas into great businesses and often in such an endeavour, mentorship is the key element. Tata Communications is committed to cultivating a spirit of excellence and innovation and creating a culture of investment that impacts the country’s competitiveness, globally. These start-ups are addressing the need of the hour based on the current trends we’re seeing. The investment and mentorship the start-ups receive through this programme will help these innovative new companies expand their scope of work, to build business skills and acquire market opportunities in the country. It鈥檚 a privilege for us to be a part of this programme.”

The start-ups have been provided with work spaces, IT infrastructure, seed capital and mentorship from a team of industry experts. The iAccelerator programme has five angel investment partners including the CIIE. The start-ups are expected to showcase their final prototype / product to the angel investors on Demo Day. They can expect an investment of up to INR 10 lakhs for their project. Last year, they were given the chance to showcase their products to 36 investors.

Pranay Gupta, Joint CEO, Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) says, “Supporting our finalists with the best infrastructure and expertise is imperative for the programme. This is the second year that Tata Communications has supported the iAccelerator programme and as one of the world鈥檚 leading providers of enterprise managed services, we are confident that our finalists will have access to world class connectivity, technology and invaluable mentorship to strengthen their projects. This is not just about the investment but also the ability to collaborate with one of the technology leaders in the industry.”

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鈥檚 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)

www.tatacommunications.com

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.

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