Airbus aerospace accelerator to set up centre in Kerala
Airbus BizLab India, a global aerospace business accelerator that is part of Airbus, on Saturday signed an MoU with the Kerala government to set up an innovation hub in Thiruvananthapuram.
Airbus signed the MoU with the Kerala Startup Mission to assist the startups in aerospace. Startup Mission CEO Saji Gopinath and Airbus India South Asia chief Anand E Stanley signed the MoU in the presence of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The Airbus innovation centre will function under the Bengaluru-based centre of the company. Bengaluru is one of its four BizLabs in the world. The others are located in Toulouse, France, Madrid in Spain, and Hamburg in Germany. The selected startups will be trained for six months at the BizLab. It will also conduct training by bringing in experts in the fields of defence and aerospace.
The centre would support aspiring entrepreneurs seeking to dabble in two sectors.
According to the MoU, the innovation centre in the capital of Kerala will be the nodal body for planning and executing all the activities to help start-ups.
Airbus BizLab will also provide support and mentor startups in Kerala, and conduct regular workshops and discussions with experts from aerospace and defence sectors.
Further, the France-headquartered company, which has set up facilities in the four cities globally to create a network of business accelerators, will run training programmes to acquaint participants with aerospace technologies.
The Kerala government said that the company would identify opportunities for the state to adapt aerospace technologies across sectors and bring all the relevant Airbus teams and start-ups to demonstrate these. Their demonstrations will help the innovation centre to sign partnerships and deploy the technologies.
“It is a landmark agreement that will give a huge fillip to Kerala’s efforts to nurture innovations and start-ups in the aerospace and defence sectors. It will help the start-ups in the state to leverage the expertise of Airbus in transforming their innovative ideas into scalable businesses,” said Kerala chief secretary Tom Jose.
“The initiative aims to foster local talent in the aerospace domain and help promising start-ups to contribute towards shaping the future of flying not only in India but also the world,” said Anand E Stanley, president and managing director, Airbus India and South Asia.