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To give wing to the entrepreneurial ambitions of students across different campuses, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IITB) is organising a National Entrepreneurship Challenge, a first of its kind pan-India competition, where around 200 colleges are expected to participate.
The initiative, undertaken by The Entrepreneurship Cell of IIT Bombay, aims to help other campuses create an ecosystem for budding entrepreneurs.
“We have seen that many colleges are eager to learn how to develop entrepreneurship cells in their own campuses,” said Arijta Kulshreshtha, a student member of the entrepreneurship cell of IITB.
The Entrepreneurship Cell of IITB was born as part of a career management centre in October 1998, with an aim to promote entrepreneurship as a career option for students and to assist any product or venture with the help of the Incubation Centre. The latter takes the proposition of a new venture to the next level and ensures that monetary support is provided, if the need arises It also tackles issues like operating the venture’s office from the campus itself.
For example, Vivek Arya, a student member of the E-cell, started a stimulation-based learning company in his third-year at IIT-Bombay. Though the venture couldn’t take off, it gave him the entrepreneurial experience. Arya later started Makesense, a recruitment consultancy, along with two fellow IITians.
Foundation
While some students start off on their maiden ventures after graduating from IITs and other institutes, for many, the foundation is laid during their college days. The role of an entrepreneurship cell shapes the dreams of students. Entrepreneurship as a trend is gaining momentum in premier engineering institutes like IITB. For instance, in the batch that graduated in 2013, around 25 per cent of the students did not sit for placements.
“Some are looking to starting their own ventures,” said S.K. Mehta, Assistant Placement Officer, IIT-B.
IITB’s National Entrepreneurship Challenge will be the largest national inter-college competition with prizes amounting to Rs 2 lakh. The top 10 teams will then be invited in the Entrepreneurship summit to be held in February next year. The participating colleges will have to do some 40 rigorous tasks which are broadly divided into four categories: awareness, idea generation, club activities and giving back to society.
These tasks will take the participants through various sessions such as basics of entrepreneurship, a debate on job versus entrepreneurship, identifying problems in the ecosystem, propose a revenue model and plan a business model.
nivedita.ganguly@thehindu.co.in
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