State to inject startup culture in varsities

Kolkata: Unveiling the Startup Policy 2016, the Mamata Banerjee govern ment has opened up new vistas to nurture budding business minds right at the universities. To foster greater soci al acceptance regarding startups, the policy aims to create an Entreprene urship Development Centre Network (EDCN) in universities and leading higher education institutes across all districts.The government is also thin king of incorporating entrepreneurs hip skill and performance in the ove rall academic assessment through an innovative course credit structure.
The state will fund the expenses up to Rs 10 lakh to each university to create a central Entrepreneurship Develop ment Centre (EDC), the policy says “We are planning to talk to institutions like IIM-C, Jadavpur University , Cal cutta University , Presidency University, JIS University , Neotia University, Techno India, Heritage and Adamas,“ said state MEME principal secretary Rajiva Sinha.
However, experts have a word of caution for student entrepreneurship.“If you follow the Kerala or Karnataka model, you have to also keep it in mind that if students are not constantly given a congenial environment for their model business, their mission might go haywire. In Kerala and Karnataka, we have seen so many failed student entrepreneurs missing the bus in the job do main,“ said the head of a private startup incubator.
Sinha admitted there were hitches “But we have made a clear departure from the existing startup policies in other states by not individually helping aspiring business persons. We are crea ting an ecosystem, which will involve experts, institutes and government officials. This will take care of the whole nurturing process by optimum evalua tion of a student's project by business experts. Incorporating entrepreneurship in curriculum is unique in India.“
The Bengal government will facilitate `EDCN institutions' to incentivize entrepreneurship by offering appropriate credit for students pursuing entrepreneurship activities like participation in business programmes, internship with startups, project works and so on. This credit will be incorporated in their overall academic assessment.The government will also facilitate capacity building of EDCN institutions through active collaboration with leading technical business incubators (TBI) in the state. “More and more institutions will be brought under EDCN to expand the network's reach and impact,“ the policy says.
Startup advisor Mainak Bhattacharya, who was with one of India's best startup incubators at IIM-Ahmedabad's Centre for Innovation Incuba tion and Entrepreneurship, said: “The crux of the policy seems to incentivize an academic institution-based incuba tor model. The ministry of science and technology has a similar policy . India has more than 80 of such incubators and the efficacy is questionable. Most of the incubators are financially not viable and continue to depend on government funding. When it comes to financial sustainability , only CIIE of IIM-Ahmedabad, Villgro of Chennai and Kerala's Technopark can be thought of as having a successful track record.“
Sagar Daryani, founder of Wow! Momo, said, “The only hurdle I feel is the three-year time period, which is too little. It should be a minimum of five years. We are over six years old, so we feel left out, but we've passed through our tough days and learnt it the hard way .In spite of all this support from the go vernment, only hard work and determination will make them champions.“