Group to focus on Innovation as a key strategy for the future
Adopts ‘Open Innovation’ Collaborative Model
To collaborate with start-ups, industry, academia and research institutions to drive Innovation in the Aviation Industry and across GMR’s diverse portfolio of businesses
Hyderabad, NFAPost: Building on its commitment to ‘Creating tomorrow today’, GMR Group launched a new business vertical dedicated to fostering and driving innovation – GMR Innovex.
Ministry of Civil Aviation Secretary Shri Pradeep Singh Kharola, Telangana Government Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Telangana Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology (IT) Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan along with GMR Group Business Chairman – Airports GBS Raju, ED-South and Chief Innovation Officer – GMR Airports SGK Kishore and GMR Innovation Head Rama Iyer and other dignitaries were present during this launch event.
Over the years, GMR has redefined air travel in India by building world-class infrastructure, embracing innovations and employing futuristic technologies at its airports.
Innovations like India’s first fully paperless e-boarding solution, indigenous self-service check-in machines, Express Security Check, and Face recognition based passenger processing to name a few were all incubated, developed and rolled out with in-house expertise.
Framework for innovation
Building on this foundation and with a vision to create an enabling framework for innovation across all aspects of the business, GMR Innovex will operate on an ‘Open Innovation’ model.
It will act as an ‘Innovation Exchange’ to partner with startups, corporates, innovation platforms, research institutions and academia to bring innovative ideas and solutions to life and help to nurture and sustain a Culture of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
A dedicated new facility for innovation has also been established at the Hyderabad Airport campus to act as a platform for various innovation activities by various collaborating startups, industry partners and GMR employees.
On this launch event, GMR Innovex also announced innovation-focused partnerships with multiple new partners including Airbus; Plug and Play (leading global corporate innovation platform); Swedish Institute (SI); T – Hub (Innovation intermediary and business incubator based in Hyderabad); IIT-Hyderabad; International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and Schulich Business School (Business School of York University Located in Toronto, Canada).
E-boarding service
Speaking on this occasion, Ministry of Civil Aviation Secretary Shri Pradeep Singh Kharola said aviation and innovation are synonymous words and the ultimate innovation is happening in aviation.
“During Covid times the aviation sector was hard hit but has emerged stronger. Many new technologies took shape during this period and were all aimed at making the industry robust. The future of air travel is one of the passengers just walking through an airport in a fully paperless way,” said Shri Pradeep Singh Kharola.
He said GMR Airports has been the first airport to launch the e-boarding service and today 90% of passengers use this method. “GMR Innovex will become an excellent hub to train talent for various specialised jobs across the aviation industry,” said Ministry of Civil Aviation Secretary Shri Pradeep Singh Kharola.
Telangana Government Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar said innovation has become a necessity.
“In the ever-changing and fast-moving world, we either invent or perish. Despite being a new state Telangana has a clear policy of Innovation and is actively encouraging innovations,” said Somesh Kumar.
GMR innovation
He expressed his happiness that GMR innovation is stationed in our state. “With its strategic presence around the globe and being in one of the key sectors, GMR Innovation hub is going to make a difference,” said Telangana Government Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar.
GMR Group Business Chairman – Airports GBS Raju said GMR Group has been a pioneer in leveraging and adopting innovations across its business verticals.
“Given the potential of today’s new-age, digital savvy, entrepreneurial generation, our objective is to create a culture and atmosphere of innovation and take forward some of the best ideas to their logical fruition on a global scale through this new vertical,” said GBS Raju
He also expected that the diverse landscape of GMR Group will help the company’s collaborators to experiment on a wide canvas which is very essential in any creative domain.
Non-digital domains
“Through GMR Innovex, we wish to position GMR as an innovation thought leader and lay the foundation for the next phase of our growth journey,” said GMR Group Business Chairman – Airports GBS Raju.
ED-South and Chief Innovation Officer – GMR Airports SGK Kishore said GMR Innovex is a platform that will help both GMR as well as the company’s partners and stakeholders to look beyond the present and get ready for challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.
“The partnerships announced today with our partners who are established leaders in their own fields will serve as a springboard for upcoming initiatives in this space,” said SGK Kishore.
Collaborators
GMR Innovex will focus on innovations across both digital and non-digital domains to deliver improved efficiency, better customer experience and higher value to all stakeholders.
It will create a structured mechanism to build creative ideas, nurture and foster them, and build a Go-To-Market strategy for all successful initiatives.
Innovation institution will provide an avenue for its partners to work on their ideas and bring it to a forum to validate. The advantage that this exchange brings in is that collaborators can also try their products/services at GMR Innovex across a very large landscape of Airports, Air Cargo, MRO, Logistics, and other infrastructure sectors.
