STMicroelectronics known for serving the customers for electronic applications has entered into partnership with India’s National Innovation Foundation (NIF) under the aegis of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. The idea behind this strategic move is to promote and deliver technology to the remote parts of the country. NIF is set to benefit from its association with ST. The company works on a ‘Honey Bee’ network which includes like-minded individuals, innovators, farmers, scholars, academicians, policy makers, entrepreneurs, and NGOs, into the mainstream business.

The ‘Honey Bee’ collects ideas from all over India under the project name of ShodhYatra (“search trip”), which in turn highlights the rural innovation to help mankind, besides mobilizing ideas of technology students from hundreds of colleges across India through techpedia.in. As part of this partnership NIF will stress on product development, whereas ST will focus on developing electronic solutions for some of the ideas and convert them into value-added products.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Anil Gupta, Founder and Executive Vice Chairperson at NIF, said, “One of the challenges ahead of us is to democratize design thinking and innovation to generate interesting electronics applications from the grassroots levels and make them marketable. The partnership with STMicroelectronics is set to become a tour-de-force creating links and synergies from 600 districts of India to the global marketplace. This partnership will aim to move backyard inventions beyond the crude prototype stage and to further enhance innovations across the country by creating networks of electronic excellence.”

On the other hand, Vivek Sharma, Regional Vice President, Greater China and South Asia Region – India Operations, Director India Design Centers, STMicroelectronics said, “Our effort with the National Innovation Foundation is in line with ST’s culture of community-spiritedness – equipping local communities with the skills required to succeed in today’s knowledge-based economy. This gives us a great opportunity to support and incubate grassroots innovations with a focus on encouraging future-oriented, trend-spotting electronics designs that, ideally, serve the nation and world at large.”