Kolkata: ‘GAINS-2023 Funding Awards Ceremony’ was held at GRSE Bhavan on March 26, 2024. Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Ltd has instituted the GRSE Accelerated Innovation Nurturing Scheme (GAINS) to encourage innovative solutions for the shipbuilding industry and the Funding Awards Ceremony was held to formally award funding to Smart Machines and Structures, registered as a Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME) Unit, and Bodkin Technologies Pvt Ltd, a Start-Up, for their innovative solutions that would have wide application in shipyards.
Cmde PR Hari, IN (Retd.), Chairman & Managing Director, GRSE, presented the award to Srinivas Aluri, Founder, Smart Machines and Structures and Jubin George Kurien, CEO & Founder, Bodkin Technologies Pvt Ltd. RK Dash, Director (Finance), GRSE, Cdr Shantanu Bose IN(Retd.), Director (Shipbuilding), GRSE, DIG Subrato Ghosh, ICG (Retd.), Director (Personnel), GRSE, and other Senior officials of GRSE were present at the occasion.
GAINS 2023, the inaugural an Open Innovation Challenge under the GRSE Innovation Nurturing Scheme, was launched by the Minister of State for Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Electronics & IT, Rajeev Chandrashekar on May 22, 2023. As part GAINS 2023, besides structured outreach programs, innovators were provided the opportunity to visit the shipyard’s facilities and interact with various departments to get an insight into the operational intricacies.
The Open Challenge received an overwhelming response with 50 responses received from innovators across the country, from which six promising proposals were selected for detailed evaluation. GAINS is an effort by GRSE to nurture the spirit of innovation in the shipbuilding industry in keeping with the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Start-up India’ initiatives of the Government of India and the vision of Atmanirbharta.
GAINS 2023 was a two stage Open Challenge with AI, Renewable / Green Energy & Energy Efficiency and Efficiency Enhancement as the theme areas. Out of the fifty proposals received at Stage-I, six proposals were selected for detailed evaluation in Stage-II. The six innovators submitted detailed proposals as Part of Stage II and they were paid a sum of up to Rs 4 lakh each for their efforts. Finally, after a rigorous selection process, Smart Machines and Structures of Hyderabad and Bodkin Technologies Pvt Ltd of Thiruvananthapuram were declared winners of GAINS 2023.
While Smart Machines and Structures will work on an AI based Material Code Generation and Management Systems, Bodkin Technologies Pvt Ltd will take up the development of Robots for exterior painting of ships. Both these projects will be funded by GRSE.
