A solution to waste management at hospitals, a rescue system to save people from drowning - these are among the nearly 130 projects by student innovators that caught the attention of industries at the recently concluded National Science and Technology Fair organised here by Coimbatore District Small Industries Association.
As many as eight projects by school students and 121 by college students will be commercialised by the MSMEs, said C. Muthusami, chairman of the event.
One unit had signed an agreement with a college to take forward projects by the students of the college.
Many others have given in-principle consent to commercialise the identified projects. Micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) need to look at innovation and adoption of technology to improve the production process efficiency and also to come out with new products as they face market challenges. However, technology and innovation should be viable for these units, point out industry sources here.
In order to make technology and innovation affordable to MSMEs, industry organisations, individual firms, and private agencies are conducting events, joining hands with educational institutions, and organising hackathons to come out with solutions for the micro and small-scale manufacturing industries.
Some of the government schemes, too, support such initiatives.
“Through events such as the Science and Technology Fair, students get motivated to take up commercially viable projects and industries see scope for new products and processes,” says Mr. Muthusami. For new concepts to become commercially viable, the student projects need to be improved, supported financially, and have better technical inputs. MSMEs can arrive at agreements with students and take over the projects and develop those at low investments, he says.
Individual industries that are already making some products do try to modify these according to market needs so that a product or machine can be used for various applications.
Similarly, an SME unit owner might have ideas for new products. These can be developed into prototypes by college students. When students come to industries for internship, they only learn about the production processes.
There should be an opportunities for them to develop new systems, products, and production processes, he explains on the need for such events.
According to Meera, Programme Director at Forge, an innovation accelerator here, innovators need infrastructure, methodology, mentors and connection to marketplace.
Forge provides these to innovators, even for micro innovations. The organisation interacts with MSMEs, gathers information of the challenges, requirements and gaps from SMEs, gives the challenges to innovators for solutions. It has done so for a couple of MSMEs. The innovators and stakeholders need to work together, co-create the solution from the beginning for the product to be successful, she says.
When the requirements of the SMEs are given, young innovators usually come out with new products that have the potential to become new product categories. It can also be a different product in an existing category. When the concept and prototype are validated, funds come in and industries can adopt these technologies and products, she says.
Recently, the SIPCOT called for bids to set up industry innovation centres at two places - Hosur and Sriperumbudur.
The aim is to identify and collect the challenges of the industries at its estates and give it to start-ups and student innovators so that they can come out with solutions. European countries have successful models of collaborations between small and medium-scale enterprises and educational institutions. Such joint efforts fuel innovations, give rise to new ideas, and make production processes better for industries. There has to be a platform for knowledge sharing between industries and institutions, the industry sources add.
According to R. Vijayakumar, who is in-charge of the MSME Development Institute here, the Union Government supports innovation through various schemes under the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme. It provides ₹1 crore to educational institutions to set up incubators, where startups and innovators can work on solutions for MSMEs. “We have given funds here to many institutions to set up incubators to cater to the needs of MSMEs,” he said.
In the case of the State Government, an official at the Coimbatore District Industries Centre, said the Government gives incentives to industries for energy saving, quality certification, etc. It also comes out with thrust sectors and gives additional subsidies to industries in these sectors.
Food processing, rubber, and plastic were included recently under the thrust sector category. However, there are no schemes to directly support innovation. It is difficult to come out with standards and identify genuine innovations.
It could be minor modification of a product or process or a completely new product. There should be a system to categorise the innovation and provide support accordingly.
Since it is a difficult task, probably the Government has not yet come out with schemes to directly support innovations by MSMEs, the official said.