The GMR group has set up a blockchain Centre of Excellence (CoE) to incubate start-ups and promote product development in the airport sector. The start-ups will be mentored by business leaders and blockchain technology experts.
GMR Innovex signed an agreement with Idealabs, Polygon, Koinearth, India Blockchain Forum and Veroince to explore opportunities, identify blockchain technology-related use cases for airports and ancillary business. GMR-Innovex, a new business vertical of GMR Group, was set up last year to promote innovation.
“The CoE will give the start-ups and SMEs access to infrastructure and labs to start-ups to help them develop and validate solutions and services,” a GMR spokesperson said on Saturday.
The start-ups would get handholding from design to the prototype stage. The CoE would also enable thought leadership, research and training programmes for upskilling in the field of blockchain. “The CoE will work with various Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) technology players to build a slew of applications,” S G K Kishore, Executive Director (South) and Chief Innovation Officer of GMR Airports, said.
“We already have a few use cases that help create transparency, trust, data bartering and shared value and experience for our partners and customers,” he said.
GMR Innovex has roped in Idealabs Future Tech Ventures founder, Pankaj Diwan, as the Chief Evangelist to lead the CoE.