Deputy Chief Minister Inaugurates 1st Innovate in Tamil Nadu (IN2TN) IP Conclave
Chennai | July 30, 2025: The Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Thiru. Udhayanidhi Stalin inaugurated the 1st annual Innovate in Tamil Nadu (IN2TN) IP Conclave at the Anna Centenary Library in Chennai on Wednesday. The conclave themed “Intellectual Powerhouse: Transforming Tamil Nadu into the Innovation Capital of India” was organised by Tamil Nadu Technology (iTNT) Hub, functioning under the Information Technology & Digital Services Department, Government of Tamil Nadu.
The Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister handed over cheques for seed funds under iTNT Hub’s FOUNDATION Fund to 5 Deep & Emerging Tech startups incubated under the PATHFINDER program at iTNT Hub. He visited the Technology Showcase stalls by 16 Researchers from across Tamil Nadu, exhibiting their patented Deep Tech innovations. Thiru. Udhayanidhi Stalin interacted with the researchers and encouraged them toward the State’s trillion-dollar economy vision.
In the presence of the Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister, the Tamil Nadu Technology Transfer Facilitation Centre (TNTTFC) at iTNT Hub facilitated four Technology Transfers between academic researchers and industries. iTNT Hub also exchanged seven Memorandums of Understanding – including American Society of Mechanical Engineers India; National Research Development Corporation; Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Bangalore; Bosch India; Mahindra & Mahindra; and Indian Science Technology & Engineering facilities Map – and Letters of Intent with legal partners for the TNTTFC.
The Conclave aimed to foster industry-academia collaborations was attended by nearly 1500 deep and emerging tech researchers and patent holders from engineering colleges across Tamil Nadu, incubation centres, startups, industries, investors and heads of Government of Departments.
A salient feature of the conclave is a day-long Masterclasses in collaboration with Intellectual Property India, which was attended by 270 researchers, students and startup founders. The masterclasses were on The Basics of IP Filing & Protection; IP for Startups: Protecting Innovations; Copyrights & Trademarks: Protecting Branding & Creativity; Licensing & Commercializing IP; Emerging Trends in Tech Patents: AI.
The IN2TN IP Conclave was also marked by iTNT Hub’s BEACON idea validation graduation of 53 researchers & patent holders from engineering colleges in Tier 2 & 3 regions of Tamil Nadu; onboarding 21 Deep & Emerging Tech startups and researchers to iTNT Hub’s PATHFINDER incubation cohort 2.0 and onboarding 22 startups to iTNT Hub’s iAccelerate 2.0 cohort.
The Hon’ble Minister for Information Technology & Digital Services (IT&DS) Dr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, State Planning Commission Executive Vice Chairman Dr. J. Jeyaranjan, Principal Secretary to Government, IT&DS Department, Thiru. Brajendra Navnit, I.A.S., iTNT Hub CEO Ms. Vanitha Venugopal, Commodore Amit Rastogi (Retd), Chairman & Managing Director, National Research & Development Corporation (NRDC), GoI, Mr. Josh Foulger, President – Electronics, Zetwerk, Mr. Natrajan Mallupillai, Group CEO, IIT Madras Research Park, and Mr. Siva Kumar Padmanabhan, Managing Director and Head of Global Innovation & Technology Center, AstraZeneca India Pvt Ltd., were on stage with the Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister.
