Industry Interaction Series_IIS02_ Rama Iyer

In this 3rd segment of our introductory Industry Interaction series, we talk to Mr. Pankaj Diwan, Founder IdeaLabs and Co-Founder of Block91, who describes himself as a Moonshot thinker, Mentor, Technology Evangelist, Fuelling Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Enabler in Startup Ecosystem As Co-Founder of Block91, a Hyderabad based global blockchain development and consulting firm with a distributed team across North America, Europe and Asia, he is focused on building next generation applications using blockchain and smart contract technology. As founder of Idealabs, he works with Policy making bodies, Universities and Colleges in setting up Incubation Centres and Innovation Hubs to hone skills in emerging technologies, promote product thinking, innovation and entrepreneurship. He helps incubate startups and provide them mentoring and technology support. we run several initiatives like workshops, bootcamp and hackathons He sits on the Steering Commite member of J-Hub EXCITE, the first of its kind Innovation and Entrepreneurship development initiative by any university in India @ JNTU Hyderabad, the biggest technological university in India, where EXCITE offers a six weeks summer school around Product building, Innovation and Entrepreneurship on cutting edge technologies like Blockchain, AI/ML, AR/VR and IoT. He serves as the Co-Chair, SIG, Open Innovation, created by the Telangana Government as part of its documented policy http://www.telangana.gov.in/PDFDocuments/Telangana_Innovation_Policy_2016.pdf to seed the culture of Innovation and support early stage Startups. Apart from these, Pankaj is a Member of the Organizing Team of TEDx Hyderabad, is the Founding Member and convener of Hyderabad Hackers and is also a part of the Jury on HYSEA, the biggest Industry body representing all IT and ITeS companies in the state of Telangana. LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diwanpankaj/