Funds to spur innovation, groom leaders
Minister of Finance Heng Swee Keat announced at the Singapore Budget 2017 that the Innovators Academy, one of the three programmes under the Global Innovation Alliance, will build on the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme, which connects and sends some 300 NUS students each year to start-ups overseas in the United States, Europe and Asia. Minister Heng noted that the NOC programme has helped many of these students start companies or pursue interesting careers, and the Innovators Academy will make these opportunities available to students from other Singapore universities.
Two Singaporeans who had turned their NOC experiences into success include Ms Gwendolyn Tan, Mashable director of Strategy & Business Development, Asia Pacific and Mr Mohan Belani, co-founder and CEO of e27, an ‘online marketplace’ curating IT products for start-ups.
