There is a new class of students in professional colleges – undergrads who are CEOs and managing directors of their own companies. These people might idolise Mark Zuckerberg but their role models are closer home. Deepak Ravindran of Innoz, Sachin Bansal of Flipkart and Sanjay Vijayakumar of MobMe are just some of the entrepreneurs who have gone where no student has been before and opened the gates for others to race in.
(The first product of ACE Systems incubated at SCTCE and owned by Jimmin Kurichiyil (left) being released )
Entrepreneurship Development Cell, Industry Institute Interaction Cell, Placement Cell and the like are nurturing and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship on campuses across the State. Success stories are aplenty. As more and more colleges come forward to incubate (support young firms during their start-up period) companies run by their students, Technology Business Incubators (TBI) are getting to play a bigger role. The State Government provides the necessary fillip by announcing various initiatives.
The capital city has now got its fourth TBI in the State, at the College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET). “ Although there was no formal incubation facility available on the campus, we’ve been incubating companies within the existing facilities since 2004,” says A. Samson, professor and placement/TBI coordinator, CET.
The first company to be incubated was ACE Systems owned by Jimmin Kurichiyil, a graduate from University Engineering College, Karyavattom. Its first product, an IP TV Setup Box, was released in September. “Two more companies are in the pre-incubation state and both are start-up companies begun by final year students of CET. We hope to incubate at least six companies this year. Also, we’ve clean technology as the thrust area for the TBI to be set up in the Trest Research Park coming up on the campus,” Samson says.
The first TBI in the district, the Technopark-TBI (T-TBI), has been providing support to many colleges in the city. The TBI, begun in 2006, has, so far, guided 165 companies and the success rate is 96.36 per cent, according to statistics provided by officials. “We give virtual incubation (providing support outside the Technopark campus) to 25 companies, which include college campuses as well. It started three years ago and the progress has been tremendous,” says K.C. Chandrasekharan Nair, managing director, T-TBI. The colleges in Thiruvananthapuram that come under their umbrella are Mar Baselios College of Engineering, Mary Matha College of Engineering, P.A. Aziz College of Engineering, Lourde Matha College of Engineering, College of Engineering Trivandrum, and Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering (SCTCE).
“SCTCE alumni are part of successful ventures such as MobMe and Waybeo. Now three new companies are incubated at the Startup Village,” says Prakash Upendra, Associate Professor and Training/Placement Officer, SCTCE. The companies are Simrge, a mobile application development platform, Dionz, working in the consumer electronics industry, and Twist-IT, all set for intelligent traffic solutions.
Much is happening on industry-specific projects as well. As in the case of Government Engineering College Barton Hill, which recently entered into an MoU with Mercedes Benz India Pvt Ltd to set up an automotive mechatronics centre at the college. A first-of-its-kind in South India, the centre will offer an Advanced Diploma Course in Automotive Mechatronics (ADAM) from the 2013-14 academic year onwards. “We’ve also taken steps to sign MoUs with research organisations and industries, including Kerala State Electricity Board, BOSCH, HLL, Mahindra & Mahindra, C-DAC and NeST,” says P. Jayaprakash, Professor and head, placement cell, of the college.
Meanwhile, Mohandas College of Engineering and Technology is providing incubation support to fledgling entrepreneurs. Four companies have started their services from here. While two of them, Doodle Security and Synod Bioscience, have moved out, Helloinfinity and K&T Design Engineering Solutions are operating from the campus. “These are start-up ventures of our own students. At present there are four workstations and there are provisions for four more,” says Ashalatha Thampuran, director of the college.
Role of TBIs
Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, supports TBIs that help young firms to survive and grow during the critical start-up stage. It provides structural and management services to the companies. High speed data connectivity, technical assistance, marketing, mentoring and exposure to funds are provided by TBIs. The rates vary from one TBI to the other. A company is given three years to move out of the TBI. The first TBI in Kerala opened at National Institute of Technology, Kozhikode, followed by the Technopark TBI. Other approved TBIs are at CET, Amritha Vishwapeetam, Kollam, Central Institute for Fisheries Technology in Kochi and NRI TBIs in Kollam, Kochi, and Kozhikode.
Pioneers
MobMe is the first student initiative incubated at Technopark-TBI. Founded by Sanjay Vijayakumar, Sony Joy (both alumni of CET) and Vivek Francis (alumni of SCTCE), MobMe is a promoter of Startup Village, India’s first public private partnership model TBI, along with Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and Technopark-TBI. Of the six ‘innovate projects’ shortlisted in August by Startup Village, as part of the student project programme, three are from colleges in the city – an SMS-based vehicle locating system from CET, S.T.A.R.K (Scientifically-trained arm-robotic kinesis) from Mar Baselios College of Engineering and Technology, and Project Haritha from SCTCE.
Sanjay Vijayakumar, CEO, MobMe:
After six years, there is a huge momentum on the ground now with many campus start-ups blazing the trail. The next generation of youth has a very strong platform to build on their futures now to be job creators. Of course, there would be failures but that is part of the game. When we started in college, very few people understood what we were doing. The authorities at Technopark were flexible to encourage innnovation and entrepreneurship. There were small speed bumps on the way and any entreprenuer will work through all these as he is driven by passion to achieve the dream. We derived a lot of inspiration from Kris (Gopalakrishnan) of Infosys who used to visit our small office in Technopark when we were in the third year.
http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/trailblazers/article4074459.ece
(The first product of ACE Systems incubated at SCTCE and owned by Jimmin Kurichiyil (left) being released )
Entrepreneurship Development Cell, Industry Institute Interaction Cell, Placement Cell and the like are nurturing and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship on campuses across the State. Success stories are aplenty. As more and more colleges come forward to incubate (support young firms during their start-up period) companies run by their students, Technology Business Incubators (TBI) are getting to play a bigger role. The State Government provides the necessary fillip by announcing various initiatives.
The capital city has now got its fourth TBI in the State, at the College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET). “ Although there was no formal incubation facility available on the campus, we’ve been incubating companies within the existing facilities since 2004,” says A. Samson, professor and placement/TBI coordinator, CET.
The first company to be incubated was ACE Systems owned by Jimmin Kurichiyil, a graduate from University Engineering College, Karyavattom. Its first product, an IP TV Setup Box, was released in September. “Two more companies are in the pre-incubation state and both are start-up companies begun by final year students of CET. We hope to incubate at least six companies this year. Also, we’ve clean technology as the thrust area for the TBI to be set up in the Trest Research Park coming up on the campus,” Samson says.
The first TBI in the district, the Technopark-TBI (T-TBI), has been providing support to many colleges in the city. The TBI, begun in 2006, has, so far, guided 165 companies and the success rate is 96.36 per cent, according to statistics provided by officials. “We give virtual incubation (providing support outside the Technopark campus) to 25 companies, which include college campuses as well. It started three years ago and the progress has been tremendous,” says K.C. Chandrasekharan Nair, managing director, T-TBI. The colleges in Thiruvananthapuram that come under their umbrella are Mar Baselios College of Engineering, Mary Matha College of Engineering, P.A. Aziz College of Engineering, Lourde Matha College of Engineering, College of Engineering Trivandrum, and Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering (SCTCE).
“SCTCE alumni are part of successful ventures such as MobMe and Waybeo. Now three new companies are incubated at the Startup Village,” says Prakash Upendra, Associate Professor and Training/Placement Officer, SCTCE. The companies are Simrge, a mobile application development platform, Dionz, working in the consumer electronics industry, and Twist-IT, all set for intelligent traffic solutions.
Much is happening on industry-specific projects as well. As in the case of Government Engineering College Barton Hill, which recently entered into an MoU with Mercedes Benz India Pvt Ltd to set up an automotive mechatronics centre at the college. A first-of-its-kind in South India, the centre will offer an Advanced Diploma Course in Automotive Mechatronics (ADAM) from the 2013-14 academic year onwards. “We’ve also taken steps to sign MoUs with research organisations and industries, including Kerala State Electricity Board, BOSCH, HLL, Mahindra & Mahindra, C-DAC and NeST,” says P. Jayaprakash, Professor and head, placement cell, of the college.
Meanwhile, Mohandas College of Engineering and Technology is providing incubation support to fledgling entrepreneurs. Four companies have started their services from here. While two of them, Doodle Security and Synod Bioscience, have moved out, Helloinfinity and K&T Design Engineering Solutions are operating from the campus. “These are start-up ventures of our own students. At present there are four workstations and there are provisions for four more,” says Ashalatha Thampuran, director of the college.
Role of TBIs
Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, supports TBIs that help young firms to survive and grow during the critical start-up stage. It provides structural and management services to the companies. High speed data connectivity, technical assistance, marketing, mentoring and exposure to funds are provided by TBIs. The rates vary from one TBI to the other. A company is given three years to move out of the TBI. The first TBI in Kerala opened at National Institute of Technology, Kozhikode, followed by the Technopark TBI. Other approved TBIs are at CET, Amritha Vishwapeetam, Kollam, Central Institute for Fisheries Technology in Kochi and NRI TBIs in Kollam, Kochi, and Kozhikode.
Pioneers
MobMe is the first student initiative incubated at Technopark-TBI. Founded by Sanjay Vijayakumar, Sony Joy (both alumni of CET) and Vivek Francis (alumni of SCTCE), MobMe is a promoter of Startup Village, India’s first public private partnership model TBI, along with Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and Technopark-TBI. Of the six ‘innovate projects’ shortlisted in August by Startup Village, as part of the student project programme, three are from colleges in the city – an SMS-based vehicle locating system from CET, S.T.A.R.K (Scientifically-trained arm-robotic kinesis) from Mar Baselios College of Engineering and Technology, and Project Haritha from SCTCE.
Sanjay Vijayakumar, CEO, MobMe:
After six years, there is a huge momentum on the ground now with many campus start-ups blazing the trail. The next generation of youth has a very strong platform to build on their futures now to be job creators. Of course, there would be failures but that is part of the game. When we started in college, very few people understood what we were doing. The authorities at Technopark were flexible to encourage innnovation and entrepreneurship. There were small speed bumps on the way and any entreprenuer will work through all these as he is driven by passion to achieve the dream. We derived a lot of inspiration from Kris (Gopalakrishnan) of Infosys who used to visit our small office in Technopark when we were in the third year.
http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/trailblazers/article4074459.ece