National Instruments announces the launch of Planet NI – Nurturing Innovation

Bangalore – 4th September 2008 – National Instruments, a technology pioneer and leader in graphical system design, announced the launch of the Planet NI (Nurturing Innovation) Foundation. The Planet NI Foundation is a non-profit initiative instituted by National Instruments with a mission of enabling current and future engineers in developing nations to achieve economic prosperity through education and easy-access to technology.

Planet NI foundation addresses the needs of education institutes and SME Entrepreneurs by providing access to technology at an affordable cost. With a vision of making this world a better place, National Instruments has a group of individuals and organisations working together towards the goal.

Mr. Victor Meires, VP – Sales, Asia, “At National Instruments, we have always worked towards making this world a better place. We achieve this by maintaining a fun and innovative corporate culture, providing tools that inspire and empower engineers and scientists to change the world. With Planet NI we want to address the issues faced by students, emerging entrepreneurs and companies by providing access to technology. To take this movement forward we invite individuals and organizations to join and support us in this endeavor. “Hundreds of entrepreneurs across the world have started their organizations using NI technology and have been very successful and continue to reach new milestones,” he added.

Planet NI comprises STEM Education, SME Entrepreneurship program and Green Engineering.

Ø STEM Education – This is an ongoing initiative adopted by the company to improve the quality of engineering education in the country. The Program strives to enhance learning in engineering colleges through experiential learning by collaborating with organizations working in this area. Some of the programs in this framework include Professor Internships, Centers of Excellence, Student Training and Certification, Train the Trainer Program, etc

Ø NI SME Benefit Program –The framework of Planet NI addresses factors affecting the technology adoption among the SMEs by providing increased affordability and flexible pricing for NI Technology and easy access to NI Training and Support.

Ø Green Engineering – In this program NI helps and educates companies to design and develop eco-friendly products.

Mr. Ravi Kumar, Managing Director, KRISAM Automation, Bangalore was among the first to benefit from the initiative, he said “Under the NI SME Benefit Program we were able to gain access to graphical system design technology by purchasing NI LabVIEW, and this in turn opened channels for our business and increased our productivity.”

Planet NI in India is driven by employees and is the company’s way of showing responsibility to fellow citizens who would like to have a better way of life.

About National Instruments:

For over 32 years, National Instruments has transformed the way engineers and scientists around the world design, prototype, and deploy systems for test, control, and embedded design applications. Using NI open graphical programming software and modular hardware, customers at more than 25,000 companies annually simplify development, increase productivity, and dramatically reduce time to market.

For more information contact:

Good Relations (I) Pvt. Ltd.

National Instruments

Gautam Mahtani / Benazir Akthar P N

Swetha Joseph

Mob: 98860 24977 / 99002 22648

Mob: 99866 46420

Tel: 22112306/8/9/11/12

Tel: 41190053

Email: gautam {at} gri.co(.)in benazir {at} gri.co(.)in

Swetha.joseph {at} ni(.)com

Benazir Akthar P N

Sr Account Executive

Good Relations (India) Pvt. Ltd.

1A, Lavelle Mansion,

1/2 Lavelle Road,

Bangalore – 560001

Mob: +91 9900222648

Tel: +91 80 2211 2311 / 2 / 09

Fax: +91 80 2211 2307

Email: benazir {at} gri.co(.)in

URL: www.goodrelations.co.in