The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) and Qualcomm Ventures have announced a startup contest called “QPrize Make in India”, which will provide the winner with $350,000 in exchange for equity investment. The contest opened on the 4th of February, and startups wanting to participate can submit their entries on DIPP or Make in India website. The last date for submission will be the 12th of this month, with the DIPP announcing the shortlist on the 15th of February. These shortlisted companies will be invited for the final pitch presentation during the final on the 18th of Feb and judged by a jury consisting of people from the government, industry and Qualcomm. The winner will be provided with the prize money. The final will be held at the Make in India centre at MMRDA Grounds, Bandra-Kurla complex, and telecast live. Qualcomm in India: In September, the US-based chipmaker Qualcomm announced that it would invest $150 million in Indian startups following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with heads of Silicon Valley’s technology firms heads. The company said it would invest in IOT startups, without being more specific about which ones how much and by when. Qualcomm ventures has been investing in startups in India since 2007 and some of its portfolio companies include online real estate portal Housing, Reverie Language Technologies (which operates the multilingual Android keyboard Swalekh), traffic information provider Traffline, mobile application development and distribution company AppsDaily, Housejoy medical services company Portea Medical and mapping services company MapMyIndia.…
