A start-up bank at Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU) will soon showcase innovative ideas of young entrepreneurs.
The move comes as part of efforts by the university to encourage youngsters who are willing to launch start-up ventures while pursuing their academic programmes. The proposed bank will offer a virtual platform where they could pitch their ideas and get the required financial and technical assistance.
The varsity budget has earmarked ₹5 lakh towards nurturing the start-up ecosystem on the main campus and affiliated colleges. Students interested in taking up innovative ventures will get administrative and academic support. The incubator facility will also provide research and development support.
Customised support to entrepreneurs
A major focus area will be offering customised support to entrepreneurs by hand-holding ideas that can create jobs and evolve a revenue model. Senior varsity officials said that campus entrepreneurs needed financial support to develop appropriate technology to implement their business ideas. They also require facilitation for securing patents. It will be done by the varsity, they added. The varsity has decided to seek tie-ups with the industry at the State and national levels to boost entrepreneurial activities involving students. This is expected to expose innovators to the latest research and development initiatives of the industry, besides giving them a chance to understand and work on the requirements of various industrial units.
The focus areas identified by the varsity include Information and Communication Technology, bioscience, agri-business and agri-processing, chemistry, and physics, to name a few. Student entrepreneurs will get technical guidance from faculty members and experts in various fields. They will also get training in issues pertaining to intellectual property rights and their management, government schemes and policies on entrepreneurship and start-ups, and ways to start new ventures. The start-up support programmes will be scaled up in the new academic year. The varsity has also plans to start a full-time mechanism to nurture and promote innovations and ideas of students.
