Innovation Valley identifies seven teams from Tel Aviv to solve four challenges from the industry, government departments and society in Andhra Pradesh.

Vishakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh Innovation Society (APIS), the innovation wing of Sunrise State, Andhra Pradesh, in association with DCF Ventures and Axis Innovation has selected six teams from 30 participating challengers in Tel Aviv, Israel to solve real-world use-cases on Local Water Purification, Cyber Security, Agricultural Supply Chain and Digitising Water Infrastructure from the industry, government departments and society in Andhra Pradesh.
The winners were selected at the final presentation session in front of an esteemed jury and award ceremony held at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on 28thJanuary 2019 in the presence of Mr. Pramod Sharma, First Secretary (Commerce), of the Indian embassy in Israel and Zohar Sharon, Winny Patro (who joined via web conference) –. The winning solutions were;

· Non-GM seed treatments which induce crops to grow well in high salinity soils or when irrigated with brackish water,

· a cloud based supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system ,

· A cyber security solution for protecting brands and public identities against disinformation, in order to avoid financial and reputational damages,

· Disinfection and purification of water through “ Water Sheild” technologies,

· a solution for dynamic pressure management in urban water networks that enables water utilities to save water, lower costs, and increase operational efficiency,

· foragricultural development – a technology that helps reduce the use of chemical fertilizer by 30% to 50% , and

· An IoT (Internet of Things) based seed monitoring & distribution management system

The challengewill beselecting another three teams from its Indian leg on February 2-3 in Visakhapatnam for solving real world problems on

· digital transformation of seed distribution process and use of this data for providing input subsidy and crop insurance settlements without manual intervention,

· proper water supply to the people of Andhra Pradeshand

· Development of a platform which would help facilitate train law enforcement agencies in India dealing with Cyber Crime by the analysts and experts from Israel dealing in the same.

“Happy to see such huge responce in Tel Aviv. I am sure the advance technology and expertise from Israel will benefit the people of Andhra Pradesh” said Mr. Winny Patro, CEO of APIS.

The total prize money for SOCH: India-Israel Hackathon is USD 130,000, i.e. USD 65,000 each for winners from India and Israel respectively.Out of the USD 65,000 for winners from Israel, USD 12,500 will be awarded as cash prizes start-ups to visit Andhra Pradesh and engage with the Govt departments to further evaluate their solution & market fit; while the remaining USD 52,500 will be split in 3:2 ratio between top-two start-ups and will be used for implementation support.

Likewise, of USD 65,000 (about INR 50 Lakhs) for winners from India, INR 600,000 will be awarded as cash prizes of INR 150,000 each for four promising entries; remaining INR 4,400,000 will be split in 5:3:2 ratio between the top-three start-ups and will be used for implementation support.

“Andhra Pradesh is the first state to accept open innovation and we are very happy to be a global innovation partner of this strategic journey. Organising a two-nation Sunrise Open Challenge Hackathon (SOCH) will brings best minds from across the globe to solve real-world use-cases from the industry, government departments and society”. Said Ms Lakshmi Potluri-CEO,DCF Ventures.