digitalLEARNING Magazine - October 2017

FEATURED INTERVIEWS

SPECIAL MESSAGE Bhupendrasinh Chudasama

Anju Sharma

Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe

VOLUME 13 ISSUE 09 OCTOBER 2017 ISSN 0973-4139

NARENDRA MODI Prime Minister

VIJAY RUPANI Chief Minister, Gujarat

SPECIAL

IS SUE

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Part-I

of October

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CONTENTS OCTOBER 2017 | VOLUME 13 | ISSUE 09

COVER STORY

SMART EDUCATION

LEADER’S PERSPECTIVE

24 DEVESH M PATEL Chief Medical Officer of Health, Vadodara

UNIVERSITY PERESPECTIVE 28 PROF (DR) NAVIN SHETH 12 SSIP: AN IDEA THAT BECAME A POLICY

POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

Vice chancellor, Gujarat Technological University

30 PROF (DR) MAHENDRA SHARMA

ANJU SHARMA

Education Minister, Government of Gujarat

Director General, Ganpat University

HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

18 Principal Secretary, Higher & Technical Education, and Chairperson, SSIP Implementation Committee, Gujarat

09 BHUPENDRASINH CHUDASAMA

GUJARAT HACKATHON EVENT REPORT

54 PROF SARAT KUMAR PATRA Director, IIIT Vadodara

TECHNICAL EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE 22 PROF ANIL SAHASRABUDHE Chairman, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE)

42 EMPOWERING CITIZENS THROUGH STUDENTS’ INNOVATIVE IDEAS

20

STARTUP PERSPECTIVE

KK Nirala

44

Director, Technical Education, Government of Gujarat

EDITORIAL Gujarat – Set To Scale New Heights with Students’ Startups The State of Gujarat has acquired an unprecedented importance in the last decade or so for being an amazing development story. Irrespective of which political party has been holding the reins at the Centre, the Gujarat success story has been mesmerizing for various other States.

In the light of rising importance of Artificial Intelligence and a spurt in layoffs in the industry, the significance of Student Startups have acquired a new meaning, offering a big ray of hope for a bright future for the youth of the country.

Also, in the wake of a large number of highly impressive thesis and innovative ideas emerging every year, the cover story of our magazine’s latest issue has tried to explore and focus on how the Student Startup and Innovation Policy (SSIP) transforms these innovations and new products and services are being offered by the startups.

It maybe remembered that following an experiment by the Gujarat Technological University in 2010, which was about incentivising students academically for identifying a problem at any village, industry, or organisation, it gained currency at university level of the State as well. Later, it led many students to highlight problems and present fresh ideas to solve them. All this led to the idea -- “Students could become entrepreneurs”.

Our latest issue has tried to demystify this aspect of Students Startups.

A Hackathon Report features in this issue for the first time. Its significance has been that in Gujarat, a large group of people recently tried to solve public problems through intellectual prowess away from any discrimination.

We have also attempted to explore the perspective of various distinguished stakeholders including Anju Sharma, Principal Secretary, Higher and Technical Education, Government of Gujarat, Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and K K Nirala as Director of Technical Education, Gandhinagar and others.

Also, we have looked into Startup Perspective, touching upon various startups and innovative ideas in Gujarat. These write-ups showcase how government policies and various incubation centres at different universities help these ideas to become a product.

The startup and innovation ecosystem has gained momentum in India recently. With ‘Startup India’ mission in place, Government of India has reached out to new age innovators to drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities. In line with the Government of India, Government of Gujarat has also given focus in terms of building effective startup and innovation ecosystem.

Realising the importance of Startup revolution for generating employment, the Higher & Technical Education Department, Government of Gujarat in association with Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd, is organising National Student Startup & Innovation Summit on 5th October, 2017, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The aim of this conference is to create a knowledge sharing platform in which innovators across India and world over from various higher education institutes can come and showcase their innovations in the presence of policy makers, experts and investors.

Presenting a special issue of the magazine, featuring a host of interviews, stories and reports, we look forward to our readers’ invaluable feedback.

Dr Ravi Gupta Editior-in-Chief & CEO digitalLEARNING Magazine and Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd

9

‘GUJARAT DEVELOPING EDUCATION WORLD OF GLOBAL STANDARDS’

What priorities is your government stressing on to fulfil the broad agenda of education sector under the State’s Development Model?

We are working at all three levels of Education: Primary, Secondary and Higher. We are putting continuous emphasis on maximising enrollment in primary schools through “Shala Praveshotsav” and “Kanya Kelavani”. The priority of the Department is to ensure “no dropouts” till 10th

“

We are putting continuous emphasis on maximising enrollment in primary schools through “Shala Praveshotsav” and “Kanya Kelavani”.

”

standard. The Department holds continuous teacher training programmes along with monitoring schools through Gunotsav. NAMO e-Tablet has been launched recently by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijaybhai Rupani through which we aim to promote e-Education and Digital Learning. The Department after the launch of Student Startup and Innovation Policy (SSIP) is continuously working to encourage Startups to become job providers rather than job seekers. The Education Department is focusing continuously on Skill-based Education and Vocationalisation through GKS, SCOPE and spreading academic reforms by establishing an umbrella body – KCG.

What are the interventions the Government is making for ‘Skilling’ and ‘Employment’ of youth across the State universities?

The Government is keenly working on this through the following: 5-lakh grant per college for 80 Government colleges -- Setting up Finishing Schools giving special training for 100 hours to make students corporate-ready, and enhance employability -- Student Workbooks to be distributed for regular practice at no charge.

SCOPE is a unique initiative offering various options for learning English language at a very low-cost. DELL also supports skill enhancement.

GKS has variety of courses for all Sectors and Vocations.

dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

LEADER’S PERSPECTIVE

The State government is very much concerned to prepare universities attain global standards.

Several steps are being taken by KCG for the same, says Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Education Minister, Government of Gujarat, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

LEADER’S PERSPECTIVE

10 UDISHA clubs are established in every college and funds are allocated for conducting placements.

SAPTDHARA offers students opportunity for holistic development and honing special skills.

What steps are being taken across universities to prepare them to attain global standards and ready them to feature in the top 200 universities in the world?

The State is very much concerned about this. Several steps are being taken by KCG for the same which conducts Academic and Administrative Audit, a state version of NAAC enhancing accreditation of universities and colleges. Under RUSA, we are trying to improve infrastructure of colleges and universities. A large number of minor and major research projects are being encouraged by professors to bring improvement in curriculum – making them LOOC based. Gujarat is the only state to achieve 100 per cent success to have database of all the State colleges and universities.

What are the future initiatives the Government is planning to boost the education sector of the State?

State Academic Institute Interface offers “Corporate ready” and “Industry ready” courses.

In the days to come, Technical Education will receive a major boost through collaboration with MNCs. The Education Department aims to promote digitsation of universities for academic and examination reforms. The Department is sanctioning an amount to the tune of Rs 40 lakh grant per college (Government and Grant in Aid) and Rs 20 lakh for other education institutions to encourage entrepreneurship and Startup. Under Rashtriya Uchchattar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), we have submitted a proposal for research and innovation sectors.

Highlight your intervention in R&D, innovation and Start-up domain.

We are having a very structured approach to promote innovation & Student Start-up Culture across our universities. In the context of state universities we took the leadership in the nation in setting university based innovation

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

ecosystems. I have personally interacted with all Vice Chancellors, Innovators, Start-ups and ecosystem enablers quite often to understand how could assist them further. As a result of this we have developed India’s 1st of its kind Student Start-up Innovation Policy, SSIP to help student innovators & start-ups across Universities with 200 cr support system.

Each University has been given a mandate and guideline to further contextualize it and develop suitable innovation & student start-up support system. We will help setting up pre incubation facilities across 200 plus institutions in next 5 years in the states and making efforts to see that most of the universities to organically set up their Incubation facilities in this period. We are creating path to link academia-industry & governance.

We have launched “Smart Gujarat for New India” Hackathon which is 1st such attempt by any state in the nation. We are trying to create an innovation-centric policy at all layers and wish to see that 1% of our graduates should turn out to be either self employed or entrepreneurs in near future. We are making efforts to cocreate with all existing stakeholders in state and national innovation & start-up ecosystem.

We are making efforts to create a decentralized innovation & student start-up support system so that students start-ups across any part of the state and domain can leverage SSIP support system.

“

State Academic Institute Interface offers “Corporate ready” and “Industry ready” courses.

In the days to come, Technical Education will receive a major boost through collaboration with MNCs. The Education Department aims to promote digitsation of universities for academic and examination reforms.

”

COVER STORY

12

SSIP:

AN IDEA THAT BECAME A POLICY In Gujarat, a large number of thesis and innovative ideas emerge every year.

How the Student Startup and Innovation Policy (SSIP) transforms ideas into new product and services to becoming entrepreneurs, write Hemangini Kanth Rajput and Dipen Pradhan of Elets News Network (ENN).

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

13

I

n 2010, the Gujarat Technological University (GTU) started an experiment to incentivise students academically. Under the experiment, the students were asked to identify a problem at any place, village, industry, or organisation, during their summer vacations.

Students, who were able to figure out the problem were awarded four credit points — equivalent to a subject. An additional point was awarded to the students who came up with solutions.

The experiment became popular among other universities in Gujarat as well. It led many students to highlight problems. It also helped some of the students to come up with fresh ideas for solving these problems. The experiment boosted the idea -- “Students could become entrepreneurs”.

dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

COVER STORY

In three years, around 1,50,000 students graduated from the university.

Initially, the idea was to motivate innovation among students and provide them with more skills rather than passing out with just a degree in hand.

The experiment continued for three years.

During the period, students were also encouraged to create a market for their innovations either by becoming an entrepreneur or by selling their technology. This saw a spike in patent filing with 300 patents filed during the period -- a six-fold increase in the numbers. From 2012 - 2013, around 20 to 23 students graduating from GTU were setting up their own ventures, of which some were already earning revenue of Rs 2.50 lakh.

As many new innovations and researches were being done by students in sectors like Manufacturing, Information Communication Technology (ICT), Internet of Things (IoT), Embedding System, Agritech, Edutech, etc, for the first time, student entrepreneurship was being talked about but without any financial support to their startups.

GTU then formed a Student Startup Support System (S4) to build a complete Student Startup Ecosystem: culture building, problem solving, ideation, product design, pre-incubation, etc.

It provided a supply line with an access to infrastructure, initial capital and mentoring.

In three years, around 1,50,000 students graduated from the university. Initially, the idea was to motivate innovation among students and provide them with more skills rather than passing out with just a degree in hand.

Meanwhile, new theories were evolving because even if the students tried and failed at the age of 20, their innovation could achieve new heights in the market. GTU then drafted the country’s first comprehensive and strategic “University Student Startup Policy” in 2014.

This policy has a provision of relaxation in attendance requirements in class for those who want to build enterprises: a provision of promoting girls entrepreneurship; a provision for the university to set up regional innovation centres; a provision for allowing colleges to facilitate startups after class hour, etc. Overall, this policy provided a legitimate definition for the student startups and entrepreneurs. It aimed to facilitate innovations among regular students and alumnus of universities and colleges of Gujarat.

The initiative witnessed 90 per cent success rate of which majority were from the institutions established within last six years and remotely located colleges of the Tier-II cities of Gujarat.

Concomitantly, the effort led to drafting the National Student Startup Policy -2016 by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). The draft

14 provided an additional boost to the legitimacy of this experiment now providing support to student startups across AICTE-approved institutions of the nation.

COVER STORY

Student Startup and Innovation Policy (SSIP), Gujarat Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma held several meetings with Vice Chancellors of the universities in Gujarat on forming a state-level Student Startup & Innovation Policy (SSIP). A policy was very much needed to create resources for startups and to support the mandate for student startups in the State.

Principal Secretary of Higher and Technical Education Department of Gujarat Anju Sharma was actively working to expedite the process to frame university-based SSIP where AICTE was acting as an umbrella organisation. The idea was to provide a system to support pre-incubation phase of entrepreneurship. At that time, a policy was much needed that completed the students startup ecosystem through integration of industry, government and universities.

Earlier, the focus was only on entrepreneurs and the Government used to provide funds only to those startups that developed a prototype and were listed as companies, but the expenses accrued during the preincubation phase was not refunded.

A student, for instance, in manufacturing field needed at least Rs 10,000 to develop a prototype, and more funds for a better one.

Gujarat already has two policies to support entrepreneurs. The State Industry Department awards up to Rs 21 lakh of grants to entrepreneurs,

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

The motive of the policy and fund is to support creativity, innovation and student startups across 60 universities in Gujarat touching around 1.4 million students to support 1,000 student innovations for POC and IPR every year.

a type of support given at the post-prototype stage.

The Science & Technology Department allocates funds for infrastructure creation, incubators, and ICT-related innovation. It also has the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), which is the oldest incubator in the country.

Gujarat Venture Finance Limited (GVFL), a Venture Capital Fund agency supported by the Government of Gujarat also provided funds . But it lacked preincubation link or support to the startups.

To reach the stage to receive Rs 21 lakhs fund, the startups need to have at least Rs 50,000 or one lakh rupee to convert the protocol into a prototype or a product. This was the missing link Gujarat wanted to advent.

Thus, in January 2017, the Gujarat Government passed the Student Startup & Innovation Policy (SSIP). It has allocated a budget of Rs 200 crore per year, of which Rs 100 crore is allocated from the State fund and Rs 100 crore from other resources.

The mandate of the SSIP is to put resources in the university for creating student startup ecosystem to nurture a startup from preincubation stage to a renowned company.

It further envisions to create a value chain of culture building, innovation building, and to set up a full-fledged organic incubation mechanism in the next five years. It can be said that the policy is at implementation phase. It is receiving applications from universities and would provide the assistance on merit basis.

The motive of the policy and fund is to support creativity, innovation and student startups across 60 universities in Gujarat touching around 1.4 million students to support 1000 student innovation for POC and IPR every year.

Gujarat SSIP after being implemented in all the 60 plus universities across the state touching around 1.4 million students, aims to produce 1,000 academic startups ready to obtain Proof of Concept (PoC) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) every year.

Academic startup has received a significant push in Gujarat. More than 8 out of 10 Technical Business Incubators (TBI), supported by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), GoI, are in universities and nearly 18 out of 20 Nodal Institutes, Gujarat, are in academic environment.

Gujarat Startup ecosystem has taken a leadership towards setting up a systematic preincubation layer since past three years.

The S4 introduced by Gujarat Technological University brought some concrete cultural impact

15

SSIP: A university-based policy Universities in Gujarat submit a roadmap on what it wants to do, are doing and what are the competencies, among few other points while obtaining SSIP support. The state-level committee then examines the proposal. Once approved, the university gets Rs one crore grant per year depending upon its size, of which a Government college is liable to get up to Rs 40 lakh grant per year and a private institution/college would get a grant of Rs 20 lakh. The funds can be utilised on helping students producing a proof of concept, designing, filing patents and, assist them on activities such as conducting workshops, programmes, etc. The policy was first implemented in Gujarat Technological University.

After the implementation of SSIP in Gujarat Technological University, it has helped disburse funds for two needs - For students who needed fund for prototype building during their pre-incubation phase and for filing patent. In Gujarat, a sum of Rs 15,000 approximately is required for filing a patent.

Student startup in every State Informal startup networks like of E-Chai and others have helped creating critical mass at grassroots to support startup activities which complements the institutional support systems.

While start-up ecosystem has evolved quite

Gujarat Startup ecosystem has taken a leadership towards setting up a systematic preincubation layer since past three years.

Student Startup Policy introduced

by GTU brought some concrete cultural impact in the mindset of students to aspire to start-up.

fast in past years, platforms like EDI has given broad dimension to entrepreneurship efforts in terms of academic research, capacity building and bringing inclusion in terms of taking startup/ entrepreneurship process beyond technology domain and geographic limits.

Student Startup policy of GTU later on was adopted across universities in Kerala & Andhra Pradesh. Recently AICTE took some insights of such efforts from the Gujarat Ecosystem and developed a university start-up roadmap for more than 10,000 colleges affiliated to it.

Few states and like Odisha, Jharkhand and others have taken insights from Funding mechanism from Gujarat Ecosystem like GVFL and scaling them up in their context. Pre incubation/ University startup ideas across Kerala, AP and nationally through AICTE has taken huge inspiration from Gujarat driven initiatives across academia.

Hirenmay Mahanta, Executive Director, AICTE, said, “AICTE is serious to mandate every State to adopt a policy like SSIP, Gujarat.”

“With Gujarat drafting the SSIP, three to four States have already approached for assistance in designing a similar policy in their respective State universities. Although the ecosystem of SSIP would differ from State to State due to geography, culture, resources, demography differences but the policy can act to provide the path for implementing the SSIP,” he added.

GTU student startup ecosystem At GTU, applications inviting fresh ideas are being invited monthly through the website of its Innovation Council. At least 30 to 35 applications

dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

COVER STORY

in the mindset of students to aspire to startup.

Later, Gujarat University also intervened similar efforts in non-technology sectors through its initiatives. It’s claimed by universities including GTU, GU and others that at any stand-point during an academic year these universities receive nearly 30-40 student start-ups each for hand holding at their early stage.

Gujarat Startup incubators and the ecosystem at large is believed to fetch quality pool of potential start-ups from university research and handhold them to become success stories of tomorrow.

Gujarat is the first state where an end to end innovation ecosystem development approach has been adopted and three different support schemes by the Department of Education, the Department of Science & Technology and the Department of Industry, have been put in place and positioned them in such a manner that it complements each other’s offering and through synchronisation create optimum impact.

COVER STORY

16 are being received on a monthly basis, from both university affiliated and non-affiliated colleges/ institutions.

When a student comes with an idea, the GTU Innovation Council asks them to pitch in ‘Design Clinics’. In Design Clinic, experts on the relevant field are summoned who evaluates the idea to check whether the idea is feasible in the market or not. Even if the idea fails to find its feasibility, through ‘Idea Generation Methods’, the council provides them the basics to form an idea which is again validated in the Design Clinic.

After idea validation, the council helps the innovator in prototype building or designing the proof of Concept (PoC). Then the innovator is invited in the ‘Startup Clinic’ where mentoring is provided. Furthermore, the innovator is invited in the ‘Patent Cell’ to skill them on making Patent Search and Analysis Report (PSAR), and Patent Drafting Exercise (PDE). The Council has a ‘Patent Clinic’ to check if the prototype needs Patent Filing or to register just the design for copyright, trademark, design registration, etc.

Then the Council provides them assistance to do ‘Market Research’ in which it helps them get 100 user traction or customer validation. 100 user traction is a thing the council asks them for their prototype. Once they achieve their user traction target, the council helps them obtain Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) or Private Limited done before proceeding it further to Nodal Institution.

The GTU is currently trying to involve Venture Capitalists to invest, for which the aforementioned needs to be checked properly.

The GTU has assisted more than 150 startups on their pre-incubation phase of prototype building.

These startups were affiliated to various institutions and nodal agencies. For GTU affiliated college/ institution, it has so far incubated 47 startups, of which 14 received fund, seven commercialised their product and 26 are at early stage of getting validation in the market. Out of 480 colleges affiliated to GTU, 30 have recognised incubation centres to help the Student Startups.

Salient features of SSIP l Setting up Innovation and Pre incubation

facilities across 200 academic campuses. l At present Gujarat files about 650 patents

from which around 40 % are by academia.

Through SSIP we will support 1000 student innovators/researchers to get IPR support

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

Few states like Odisha, Jharkhand and others have taken insights from Funding mechanism from Gujarat Ecosystem like GVFL and scaling them up in their context.

and wish to be among top 3 states in IPR protection for innovation and leveraging it. l Grassroots innovators who are even school dropout and other inclusive innovators have been made adjunct faculty (14 in GTU) in our universities for creating cross learning opportunity ( Knowledge reach economical people also to be part of academic system). l Universities in Gujarat are encouraged to give academic credit to our students for scouting community, SME, rural, urban challenges and also convert some of them as the subject of their projects/research/innovation so that impact reaches to end users. In GTU around 2000 students does real life project based on challenges by Small industries and try to work around their pain points. l Through SSIP, a solid innovation funnel, involves youth in every academic cycle: 100,000 student projects/thesis by all universities – Virtual mentoring to 10,000 best ones from them- Support 1000 best ones at POC level / IPR support- 200 Innovation driven student start-up creation every year. l During Smart India Hackathon program by MHRD, participants from colleges from Gujarat won highest number of awards. Total 135 awards were given across 29 ministries in 26 host venue nationally out of which student teams from Gujarat won 8 national awards. l Gujarat on September 26, launched its own Hackathon in which challenges will be sourced from different ministries and departments and students across universities will be incentivised to participate and develop digital solutions for them. l Recently, one Gujarat student Start-up “Straut” developed technology in solar thermal engineering got 1st prize/gold medal at MIT Climate change Innovation Award among 700 plus university participation globally.

POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

18

SSIP – LAYING ROADMAP TO HELP VARSITIES EXPAND HORIZON SSIP has formed committees at the State-level in which leaders and experts in finance, incubation, designing, marketing, etc., are involved to help universities in creating a broad roadmap, says Anju Sharma, Principal Secretary, Higher & Technical Education, and Chairperson, SSIP Implementation Committee, Gujarat, in a conversation with Hemangini Kanth Rajput and Dipen Pradhan of Elets News Network (ENN).

Tell us about the journey behind Gujarat’s achievement in becoming the country’s first State to implement Student Startup and Innovation Policy (SSIP) aimed at harnessing students’ innovation?

An organised effort to support student startups started early in Gujarat. Generally, students across academia are creative enough to solve problems. The only thing required was providing a platform so that they can utilise their skills and abilities to solve problems — and create innovation and enterprises.

About seven years ago, small co-working facilities with preincubation activities to support student innovation had already begun in universities and campuses of Gujarat. On an average, every year around 100 plus student startup came as a spin-off from these activities and experiment and support system. It further led to some of the universities to create their own strategy providing impetus to the students.

In 2014-15, we observed a critical mass happening. It received a further boost with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “Startup India”. AICTE had been taking a keen notice of experiment happening in these universities to support startup and innovation in Gujarat.

Thus, in 2016, it drafted a National Student Startup Policy. Meanwhile, the Department of Higher & Technical Education took a giantstep to support this innovation and startup

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Interestingly, some of the universities used to help the student innovation at their own budget.

With SSIP in place, it showed them a direction.

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system across universities and formed Student Startup & Innovation Policy with worth Rs 200 crore support to create innovation and startup infrastructure, incentive, PoC, development of Prototype, Patent filing, Ecosystem building, etc.

As Gujarat had always been an entrepreneurial State, there was an advantage of having the highest amount of incubators, with around 15, in the State granted by different Central Government agencies.

Moreover, with the existence of quality academic education institutions, precedence of risk taking ability along with incubators, investors, mentors, designers in the State —and with existence of all these together led to amalgamation of a movement that eventually created SSIP to support need of the student startups.

Since the implementation of the SSIP policy in Gujarat, how has been the response from State universities and colleges?

Interestingly, some of the universities used to help the student innovation at their own budget. With SSIP in place, it showed them a direction: where to move, by when and how. Initially, we received

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On what basis will the university be eligible to receive grant and support of the SSIP? Our criteria of selecting university depends upon “what they have done” and “what they want to do”, highlighting a clarity on the roadmap. In the evaluation process, proposal submitted by these universities matter. The proposal should have structured data-sets that will be evaluated by the committee at State-level. Criterias that are looked into are “Active Student Participation” (ASP). The university should have at least 2,000 ASPs with

five-year Action Plan Milestone, and minimum of 200 ASPs for academic institutions with Action Plan Milestone for three years, to become eligible for SSIP grant. The Action Plan should contain all the parameters mentioning their target on the number of student sensitisation, innovative projects, patent filing teams it would support for prototyping, workshops and conferences, etc. We also ask their significant initiative in the past and its impact. Finally, they propose a ‘Budget Plan’.

These are some of the important indicators after which a number of screenings are conducted to award them SSIP support and grant.

Incubation centres play a major role in fostering SSIP. How is the Department of Education, Gujarat, mobilising incubators to join this innovative policy?

One of the crux of the SSIP Policy is to ensure that university supporting the student innovation and startup should have an incubation centre, or incubation setup ready in the next five-year plan.

SSIP starts just before the incubation. The support system will ensure a strong pipeline to incubation, if the university wants to setup an incubator.

Simultaneously, SSIP also provides insights to the universities while trying to setup an incubator.

Furthermore, we are trying to create a network of incubators. SSIP has formed committees at the State-level where leaders and experts in finance, incubation, designing, marketing. etc., have been involved. The committee helps universities to create a broad roadmap and in capacity building.

We are also trying to connect universities with these incubators, so that at least one to three incubators each would handhold three to four universities.

POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

applications from around 20-odd universities for SSIP grant. Around 100 colleges applied in the first phase. On September 26, 2017, State Chief Minister Vijaybhai Rupani distributed grants to 11 universities and 12 colleges. On the other hand, many universities have filed proposals outlining “what they have done” and “what they want to do”. Our core goal is to ensure that these colleges and universities become incubation ready and systematic innovation supporting organisations by next five years. Proposal for receiving grants have been not only from technological university but also from Agriculture, Social Sciences, Liberal Arts Universities. Similarly, the institutions which have come forward are from Management, Commerce, Social Sciences, Agriculture background etc.

Colleges and universities have responded very well. Those who used to already have the student startup ecosystem are gearing-up to the next-level. Those, who have not yet started, are trying to take it forward in every aggression for supporting their startup. Our idea is to help supporting 1,000 Patent filing from the State university and witnessing such participation.

There’s been an outstanding response.

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“Our criteria of selecting university depends upon “what they have done” and “what they want to do”, highlighting a clarity on the roadmap.”

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dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

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DTE CREATING SUSTAINABLE START-UP ECOSYSTEM Our overall goal is to create a sustainable ecosystem.

We are trying to help institutes and universities in providing prototyping, IPR and allied support systems so that they can extend such supports to all innovative teams of students and alumni, KK Nirala, Director, Technical Education, Government of Gujarat, in conversation with Divakar Mukherjee of Elets News Network (ENN).

What role is the Directorate of Technical Education playing to motivate universities under its umbrella to implement the Student Start-up and Innovation Policy (SSIP) in order to harness students’ innovations?

Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Gujarat is trying to ensure that the SSIP mandate for colleges is strongly implemented across all the institutes under DTE. It is trying to handhold all stakeholders associated with the programme and trying to create end-to-end support system.

Our focus is on students and the core thrust is on ensuring that every student does innovative projects and try to be a problem solver. To do so, we are creating tool kits to give training to faculty members and students with the help of experts. We are setting up Innovation and Startup Clubs, orienting faculty members to create linkages between colleges and local start-up ecosystems and work with academic system to create incentives for student innovators and start-ups. Awards and citations are being introduced to acknowledge efforts of young minds and provide them mentoring as per their need. Focus is also on helping institutions build capacity for supporting innovation and startups in a sustainable manner.

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Awards and citations are being introduced to acknowledge efforts of young minds and provide them mentoring as per their need. Focus is also on helping institutions build capacity for supporting innovation & start-ups in a sustainable manner.

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The Directorate of Technical Education has several policies, how do you ensure a convergence with SSIP? We try that students in technical education acquire necessary skills and aptitude to become creative. We are integrating all our programmes in such a manner that it ensures a support system is built around the students. We are building infrastructure, mentor base, quality teaching-learning process and incentives to foster innovation and institutionalise innovation and entrepreneurship endeavours. Right from our efforts in providing exposure to our stakeholders till we help them realise their true potential and harness their creative potential, we are making processes and support system at each juncture.

We ensure that each of our policy and intervention complement each other while aiming to achieve broad goals of making students more innovative and enterprising.

Which initiatives of the university under SSIP are unique in terms of impact that they are going to make in upcoming days?

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Tell us more about the Common Facility and Resource Centre which is being developed at state level to support student innovations and startups.

We are establishing a state-level common resource centre this year to hand hold innovative initiatives across universities and benefit over 14 lakh young students in state with world-class innovation and start-up support system. This will be a single point access for all innovators in the state across 65 plus universities and 3,000 plus colleges where they can access end-to-end facility to take their innovation to impact stage. This will help them to successfully accomplish their journey from “Mind to Market”.

All universities, colleges, Innovators and local ecosystem stakeholders can leverage this facility. This centre will house facilities like idea lab, design facilities, fabrication lab, preIncubation support & experts from different innovation promoting organisations under single roof. It will be India’s 1st such centre where any innovator from any college, formal or informal sector can come with his/her unique idea/innovation, get support and create impact at ground level. It will also help filing patents, showcase best innovation from the state and

have a vibrant activity centre where around 50,000 students, innovators, and start-ups will actively participate every year. Primarily this Innovation Hub will cover wide range of innovations from sectors like a) Social Innovation b) Manufacturing and allied innovation c) ICT and Digital Innovation d) Science, pharmaceutical and allied innovation e) Sectoral and emerging technology driven innovation. Innovators from all districts and regions can reach out to this centre after developing their idea to certain stage and this Innovation Hub will facilitate the next set of support. Through Hub and spoke manner this Innovation Hub will be connected with all university and institute innovation centres, incubators, design labs, mentor network, investor networks, so that collectively it helps to co-create Gujarat as the most innovation promoting state in the nation.

What is your message for those attending the National Student Startup and Innovation Summit, Ahmedabad?

This is a true fillip to the cause and creates a platform for exposure, discourse and add momentum to the student innovation and start-up movement. This will help to share insights from different startup ecosystems and particularly how the student innovation and start-up ecosystem is evolving across states. This will bring together different stakeholders in innovation start-up ecosystem like innovators, mentors, incubators, academia, investors, policy makers and others. I wish the event a great success and add more energy into the entire student innovation & start-up movement. It will be a landmark in this segment of the entire start-up ecosystem endeavour under start-up India goals.

POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

Our overall goal is to create a sustainable ecosystem. We are trying to help institutes and universities in providing prototyping, IPR and allied support systems so that they can extend such supports to all innovative teams of students and alumni. We are also trying to create regional innovation centres in different parts of the state so that students in the vicinity can access to innovation and start-up support in their nearby locations. We are also creating a state-level common facility and resource centre that will help student innovators and start-ups across the value chain and domain. We are also in process of creating a student IPR policy which will help young innovators to benefit from their research and innovations. We will also build capacity of institutes so that SSIP strategies are implemented at the ground level in a decentralised manner.

We aim to help in supporting 1,000 innovations for prototyping and 1,000 for IPR every year. We are also trying to benchmark every university and institute for their innovations, start-up efforts so that they can further progress towards achieving excellence by knowing where they stand today and where they need to reach in a given time frame.

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We are establishing a state-level common resource centre this year to hand hold innovative initiatives across universities and benefit over 14 lakh young students in state with world-class innovation and start-up support system.

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Reach KK Nirala at: kknirala.office@gmail.com

dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

TECHNICAL EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

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AICTE: IGNITING INNOVATION FOR NEW INDIA AICTE is a regulatory agency with a mandate to define norms and standards for ensuring quality of technical education in terms of infrastructure, faculty, laboratories, library requirements and provide state of the art model curricula, while it is the universities and its academic bodiwes who have to implement the curricula, conduct examinations and award degrees, says Prof Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), in conversation with Dipen Pradhan of Elets News Network (ENN).

In today’s context, how the student innovation and startups contribute to the development of nation?

Globally, innovations and startup ecosystems have evolved around academic institutions.

Take for instance, at Stanford University, University of Waterloo in Canada, University of Helsinki in Finland, etc. Universities not only impart learning to students but also think about the sciences of tomorrow.

So, potentially universities are the spinners of research and development, labs and technologies, providing world-class solutions.

At universities, it is easy to reach founders, cofounders, faculty, human resources, and learn about new ideas.

In India, as well as globally, there is a lot happening for developing both ecosystem and successful innovators or startups. One of the fundamental aspects of the ‘Startup India’ action plan is that ignition should start at the college-level.

There is a presence of AICTE by way of more than 10,300 AICTE approved colleges in almost all the 600+ districts of the country and about 25 lakh students graduate from these colleges.

One day, these students will either seek a job, or become self-employed, or create jobs — and it is happening.

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In India, as well as globally, there is a lot happening for developing both ecosystem and successful innovators or startups. One of the fundamental aspects of the Startup India action plan is that ignition should start at the college level.

”

What role can the universities and academic institutions play to nurture innovation and entrepreneurship?

Universities and academic institutions are primarily engaged in teaching-learning process.

It is also important for them to innovate for new knowledge and take it to end users. Most of the AICTE-affiliated universities are equipped with good infrastructure, quality teachers and experts.

Some are also linked with the State Government colleges.

AICTE as a regulatory agency provides a mandate but the academic curricula, methodology of examination, the contents, strategy, etc, are managed by the respective universities. It is the responsibility of the State University to respond to AICTE’s call. NITI Aayog says that every month India needs to create two million jobs. Therefore, we need to ensure that universities also become a hub of job creation.

A good number of entrepreneurs and innovators have come out of most of the engineering colleges affiliated to AICTE. Universities and education institutions have a major role to play in terms of changing their curricula, their academic intervention, creating

incentives, culture, and create a support system for various parts of the value chain.

Other regulatory bodies like AICTE can help them in capacity building and provide policies like AICTE Student Startup & Innovation Policy.

What role is the student startup and innovation movement playing in the ‘National Innovation Ecosystem’ and ‘Startup India’?

There are different layers involved in the ‘Startup India’ action plan. There are multiple ministries involved in it. Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and NITI Aayog are looking into the regulatory support system, Biotechnology and DST ministries are engaged in incubation infrastructure, grants, fundings, etc., and the Ministry of Human Resource Development is involved in the ways of creating the culture, preincubation.

Technically, the ‘Startup India’ innovation focuses entirely on student startups and innovations. It is because students are always bubbling with fresh ideas; they ask questions; are well versed in new trends, and can think forward.

What has AICTE done so far to nurture student innovation and startups across the nation?

The AICTE Student Startup Policy published in November 2016 has the mandate to create at least one per cent entrepreneurs among graduates across universities/institutions, or at least they should be self-employed. Also, the AICTE Policy Implementation Committee has been formed to create a roadmap on how to deploy the policy.

AICTE is trying to integrate the support system of different ministries, particularly falling into the region, to target preincubation and student startups.

AICTE is also trying to pull-in the support system together and create a pipeline to create a feeder network to all these institutions, so that all these ministries involved can get the best institutions and best students to avail the support system that has been created. The National Student Startup Award and Science Festival are organised to nominate student startups for recognition and give them IPR support, linking them with different incubators and government agencies. AICTE is trying to scale the initiatives of SSIP of Gujarat in other states.

Intiating Innovation l AICTE and NITI Aayog signed MoU on July 6, 2017, to promote

innovation and entrepreneurship nationwide. The MoU aims to strengthen the linkage between technical institutions, students’ engagement and mentorship opportunity with Atal incubation centers and Atal Tinkering labs being established in schools across the country.

l AICTE and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship

signed MoU on June 13, 2017, towards mass creation of entrepreneurial-oriented, practicing and skilled students in 3,050 technical and management institutions in next five years.

l AICTE and the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises signed

an MoU on June 13, 2017, towards imparting skill and increase the employability of students completing their education and internship.

l Innovation and entrepreneurship are being promoted through

various national award programmes such as Clean Campus Awards, Vishwakarma Award and other awards programmes at AICTE.

l AICTE is also lining up with other ecosystem enablers such as

DST and DBT supported incubation centres, NASSCOM 10,000 warehouse, ISBA, NRDC to strengthen the referral support to student innovations and startups with incubation and acceleration centre at national-level.

As a national regulatory agency, how will AICTE replicate the student startups initiative across the nation?

Firstly we aim to benchmark best practices followed by the student innovation systems across universities, identify the best systems and highlight them in other parts of the country to help them scale up.

Secondly, AICTE will soon create an index and a common IPR policy at the national-level, so that these things trickle down to various States and universities.

Thirdly, we will be bringing together all the governmental support at the national-level and create a common pipeline so that anybody with merit can be easily noticed.

Fourthly, AICTE will promote entrepreneurship in specific regions based on the resources available there. AICTE also needs to collaborate with global stakeholders to adopt their best practices. The AICTE startup initiative has a very strong root in promoting innovation and innovation culture.

AICTE’s target is to take along at least 10 per cent of approximately 10,000 colleges affiliated to it, where there is certain creative and innovation taking place, groom and promote them to the next stage by providing the support system and link them with different facilities.

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AICTE’s target is to take along at least 10 per cent of approximately 10,000 colleges affiliated to it, where there is certain creative and innovation taking place, groom and promote them to the next stage by providing the support system and link them with different facilities.

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dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

TECHNICAL EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

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SMART EDUCATION

SMART EDUCATION FOR

ANGANWADI CHILDREN IN VADODARA In 2013, the Government of India approved the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy to provide quality education in pre-primary schools. Now, the quality education will also be implemented at Anganwadi centres of Vadodara, says Devesh M Patel, Chief Medical Officer of Health, Vadodara, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

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25 Give us an overview of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) initiative being implemented at the Anganwadi centres of Vadodara.

When will the ECCE project kickstart at Anganwadi centres? What kind of initiatives will be taken to famillarise Anganwadi teachers with the latest technology?

VMC is planning to start the project by October 2017 at few Anganwadi centres. The project will initially be introduced in about 350 centres, and will gradually cover all 400 Anganwadi centres of Vadodara. Our Anganwadi workers have already been trained by the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF). However, in order to make Anganwadi workers proficient in the curriculum, the team that designed the animation and audio-visual materials has also taken the responsibility to train them to a handle the latest technologies.

What is the total number of children in the Anganwadi centres of Vadodara? Which subjects will be covered as part of the curriculum?

The number of 0-6-year old children registered at the Anganwadi centres in Vadodara is around 60,000, of which 35,000 are aged 3 to 6 years.

The curriculum will cover the children of latter age group. All subjects which are being taught at the private pre-primary schools will be covered under the curriculum, i.e. alphabets, numbers, stories, etc. The module prepared for it has various processes. For example, every day the classes will resume with a prayer and different topics will be

SMART EDUCATION

The Government of Gujarat in collaboration with Unicef has included Anganwadis of Vadodara in its project - “Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)”. Through ECCE, a curriculum of structured materials and quality education is being provided to the children in private pre-primary schools. It will also be implemented at Anganwadi centres of Vadodara. The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) is in the process of installing television and computer sets and other infrastructure required for the functioning of the project at Anganwadi centres. The curriculum has been designed in the form of animations and audio-visuals to help children enhance their cognitive learning. The motive of the move is to make Anganwadi children competent enough for taking classes at schools.

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The curriculum has been designed in the form of animations and audiovisuals to help children enhance their cognitive learning. The motive of the move is to make Anganwadi children competent enough for taking classes at schools.

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taught to the students. Also, tests and backup sessions will be conducted in lines with private pre-primary schools.

Give a brief account of the economic and educational background of the Anganwadi children of Vadodara.

Anganwadis in Vadodara are mostly centered in slums or slum-like areas. The parents of these children earn less than Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per month. For these Anganwadi children, we have nutrition, healthcare and other programmes to ensure their holistic development. However, a proper educational pattern was missing. Hence, after introduction of a curriculum through ECCE, education at Anganwadis will receive a boost.

Vadodara Municipal Corporation has also launched a mobile-based application for Anganwadi workers.

What is this about?

We have a mobile application called “Smart Anganwadi” to track the progress and daily duties of Anganwadi workers. Activities related to delivery and consumption of milk, fruit and sweets; progress of kids on monthly basis (weight and height), etc, are regularly monitored through this app. All Anganwadi workers update their daily duties through smartphone that is monitored for smooth functioning of the whole system.

dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

STARTUP COUNCIL’S PERSPECTIVE

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GUSEC: ZERO-DAY, ZERO-COST STARTUP SUPPORT SYSTEM Gujarat University Startup & Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC) was formed one-and-half year ago to support startups, entrepreneurs and innovators in Gujarat. Currently, we have 47 student startups, of which a grant of Rs 40,000 each to 37 student startups has already been awarded, says Gujarat University Vice Chancellor, Himanshu Pandya, in conversation with Divakar Mukherjee of Elets News Network (ENN).

What is your perception about the “Student Startup & Innovation Policy” (SSIP) introduced by the Government of India in January 2017? How is it contributing to students ideas?

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced “Stand up India Startup India” policy, Gujarat University (GU) was the first to respond. Vice Chancellors of most of the universities of Gujarat gathered to discuss on the topic. Today, we’re a part of developing the SSIP policy.

We initiated this process to support student innovation back in July 2015. Now, we are a Technical Business Incubator (TBI) supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India; and a nodal agency of the Government of Gujarat. We are also a Section-8 company and have maintained close ties with state’s Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.

Students are always bubbling with energy.

They have multiple ideas in mind. When they’re given opportunity and mentored in a way they can perform at their best and nurture their ideas at its fullest, it can be converted into a product. We’ve a Mentor Board of more than 150 disciplines who meet startups regularly, to motivate, and to provide all kind of supports from prototype to product. The SSIP is an accent where students’ ideas and innovations are supported.

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Through GUSEC, we are promoting a culture and spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation across the university without any financial assistance.

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“Paying it forward” plays a pivotal role for any startups. How is Gujarat University helping student startups receive funding for their innovations?

Gujarat University formed Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC) one-and-half year back to support startups, entrepreneurs and innovators in Gujarat.

Through GUSEC, we are promoting a culture and spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation across the university without any financial assistance. Now, we are in accord with TBI and expecting some grants from the Department of Science and Technology, Delhi, and also from the Student and Startup Innovation Policy (SSIP), Gujarat, to support student innovation.

We have a three-tier setup for student startups.

First, we incubate them in our coworking space.

Second, we provide mentorship in areas they’re working at and thirdly, we support them while obtaining Intellectual Proprietary Rights, and forming business strategies. If they’re building a company, the university is providing them

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financial assistance. The university also helps them financially in getting the patents without charging any revenue from the startups.

What role is the Gujarat University playing to foster Student Startup ecosystem in the colleges affiliated with the university?

There are more than 300 colleges affiliated to Gujarat University (GU). We have received more than 100 proposals from students of various colleges of GU. Currently, we are on the process to refine these ideas (not an innovation yet) so that a protocol can be developed to turn it into prototype or product. We have appointed one coordinator for SSIP, who monitors these proposals. GUSEC is open to proposals from the students who require assistance to bring a shape to their ideas. We allow them to sit with the Mentor Board to help develop their idea. Mentor Board helps them by providing a pool of knowledge to explore, discuss, groom and refine their idea to convert it into a prototype. If that prototype is promising then it can be converted into a product. Currently we have 47 startups, of which a grant of Rs 40,000 each to 37 student startups has already been awarded.

Considering most of the startups in India belong to innovators from technical background, what role is the Gujarat University playing to bring other disciplines at par with them?Technology is a core area even for a nontech startups because some or the other way they will have to be associated with it. For instance, to deliver goods or to develop a product, technical assistance will be required. The prime interest of Gujarat University is on non-technical startups as they are involved in the Government policies directly. We look towards the Government’s

policy, its programmes, to facilitate them through our startup ecosystem.

We have more than 50 ICT-enabled classrooms with facility to interact with global teachers. We also have a Google classroom installed in our department. Currently, we’re working on the Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) programme of the Government of India, being dealt through Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) website. We’re also utilising Swayam and Swayam Prabha platforms for teaching-learning process. Moreover, we’ve introduced an Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning course as a Master Degree programme in Gujarat University from this academic year. We want to come up with an ideology where we can facilitate our students with out-of-the-box thinking, i.e. from a conventional teaching and learning method to the need of the time. If we can link industry and academia anyhow, we can be facilitators of both academia and industry. It is a whole chain of system that we follow in Gujarat University.

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There are more than 300 colleges affiliated to Gujarat University (GU).

We have received more than 100 proposals from students of various colleges of GU. Currently, we are on the process to refine these ideas (not an innovation yet) so that a protocol can be developed to turn it into prototype or product.

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dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

UNIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE

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GTU: BRINGING INNOVATION IN PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION India needs to evolve strategic and timely interventions to address basic issues and to develop cost effective and eco-friendly technologies by reengineering ancient wisdom, says Prof (Dr) Navin Sheth, Vice chancellor, Gujarat Technological University, in conversation with Dipen Pradhan of Elets News Network (ENN).

get funds for their innovation?

Gujarat Technological University (GTU) was the first to adopt “Student Startup & Innovation Policy (SSIP)” introduced by the Government of Gujarat. How the policy is contributing to students’ innovation?

Gujarat Technological University (GTU) conceptualises and encourages students to nurture engineering education and entrepreneurial skills among them. With this vision, university had established GTU Innovation Council in 2010.

Initially, the council has supported small initiatives to understand the mindset of students. Gradually the centre came into its current form wherein, we have over 25,000 footfalls. Out of these, most of the students were those who started their entrepreneurial journey right from the college.

This journey was difficult for them as they had to bootstrap their ideas and had to sustain in their market research stage. This policy will help those students who are still in the preincubation stage and they will get financial assistance for patent filing and prototyping as well.

How is the Gujarat Technological University helping student startups to

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

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GTU innovation council (GIC) intends to create a sustainable and supportive ecosystem for processes around the needs of discrete innovations and innovators.

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Efforts of GTU Innovation Council was very appealing for Government authorities as well.

Industries commissionerate of GoG released a Scheme to assist innovation and startups financially.

Under this policy, nodal institutes were appointed to facilitate student startups with “Seed Fund”. Out of 33 nodal institutes, GTU appointed few to provide financial assistance upto Rs 21.2 lakhs of the seed fund to student startups for their innovation. GTU Innovation Council has also conducted various crowd funding event which helped students in their early seed funding stage.

What role is the Gujarat Technological University playing to foster Student Startup ecosystem in the affiliated colleges and university?

GTU innovation council (GIC) intends to create a sustainable and supportive ecosystem for processes around the needs of discrete innovations and innovators. In this ecosystem, young students are placed at centre stage with all necessary support systems to help them during different phases of their innovation journey. At GIC, we have been creating interventions, incentives, institution building mechanisms with involvement of stakeholders to support innovators and startups. Institutional mechanisms include: innovation clubs at college levels, innovation sankuls at cluster level, innovation council and allied intervention at central level

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How the infrastructure at Gujarat Technological University help technology startups harness their ideas and innovation.

University produced. What are the eligibility criteria for students to receive grant and funding for their innovation?

Interventions like blended learning, 100 activity points and other such initiatives have been introduced to further democratise the innovationentrepreneurship support process. We have been continuously engaging various community stakeholders to support experienced innovation, entrepreneurship journey and develop new processes and programmes. Various annual forums and regional activities have also been introduced to benefit student innovators and startups by bringing them on common platform. GIC has also institutionalised various awards/citations/ appreciations at university level to benchmark and appreciate the achievements of startups and the best innovators. Sectoral innovation councils have been introduced to create innovation hub around a particular sector. In our innovation ecosystem development strategy, we are adopting geographical and sectoral interventions to bring inclusion in the entire process. We are trying to unite experts and institutions through our various activities to develop an ecosystem for nurturing startups. With intervention of ICT platforms and similar digital tools we are integrating, engaging and rejuvenating all stakeholders together through virtual means so that a sustainable culture is built. IDP/UDP are a couple of key tools to engage young minds for problem solving and creating innovations. In the process of developing the ecosystem, we are also building capacity, skill, institutional mechanisms and various incentives for all stakeholders so that our innovation ecosystem remains lean, agile, frugal and responsive while catering to the needs of discrete innovators in different space, time and sector.

In the tenure of last 7 years, GTU Innovation Council has supported around 150 + startups, and since December 2015, after the section 8 company was formed and approved. We have funded 14 startups and 48 remaining startups are still on board with us for availing the mentoring assistance. We have disbursed around 1 crore of fund to the student startups in last one year. We at GTU Innovation Council welcome all the ideas irrespective of their domain/sector. Our internal process of converting ideas to products, give them proper guidance and environment, and after the Preincubation phase those startups who sustain get the financial assistance and rest all are mentored to become market feasible products.

Since its inception, how many Student startups has the Gujarat Technological

How many colleges affiliated to Gujarat Technological University are following the footsteps of the university to harness student’s creativity.

GTU has around 450 + colleges wherein all the pedagogical interventions for cultivating the culture of innovation are been conducted. These interventions succeed only when they are considered in pedagogy. GTU had its own largest online literacy course – MOOC (Massively Open Online Course) on Startups, wherein local case studies of student startups are included and this course is compulsory for third semester engineering students. University plays a vital role in defining the guidelines for each policy as we have a rich experience of seven long years. Each of our initiatives have shaped into policy for the university/state or other states of the country.

Student Startup policy of GTU has been adapted by Andra Pradesh University, Kerala University, Punjab University and now it is implemented by AICTE at the national level.

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In our innovation ecosystem development strategy, we are adopting geographical and sectoral interventions to bring inclusion and access in the entire process.

We are trying to unite experts and institutions through our various innovation activities to develop an organic and complete ecosystem is created and nurtured.

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dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

UNIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE

Innovators, faculty members, industry clusters, startup ecosystems, stake holders, civil society persons, and subject matter experts are engaged to help the needy people. As part of building the ecosystem, we are creating platforms through various conferences, symposiums, festivals, for budding innovators to showcase their creativity and an opportunity to interact with suitable stakeholders. Various pedagogy reformations have also been introduced to induce a culture of innovation at college and departmental level.

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HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

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IITE: TAKING TEACHERS’ EDUCATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL The international placement initiative has been the biggest game changer so far for IITE students, while making technology a part of the curriculum developed a new culture of technocracy among students, helping them in getting global exposure, says Dr Shashiranjan Yadav, Vice-Chancellor, Indian Institute of Teacher Education, Gandhinagar, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

Share your experience in initiating teacher education.

I have been a teacher for more than 25 years, I was aware of the issues of teacher education.

When I started introducing reforms, the re was resistance from the old-fashioned teacher fraternity. But I worked slowly, firmly and moved on. When positive results started coming in, everybody realised the need for changes. And support started pouring in.

Tell us about the game changing ideas that helped you develop a working model of teacher education.

The concept of international placement originated from a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in which he talks about his dream of India exporting teachers to the world. The video inspired us to innovate. We used Google search engine to identify some Indian schools in Gulf countries and developed working relationships with them.

For six months a selected group of students were trained by experts in communication, technology, psychology, teaching, learning, pedagogy, content, etc. On 27th June 2017, when the international job fair took place, 10 students were selected by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Middle East for its school in Kuwait. As the students and their parents now prepare to join their dream jobs, it is also a big moment for IITE. The international placement initiative has been the biggest game changer so far.

Technology is another idea which was a game changer as well. We made a new computer lab for students, provided smart board to students

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The concept of international placement originated from a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in which he talks about his dream of India exporting teachers to the world.

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in an open space, gave Namo tablets to the first year students besides including technology into their curriculum and LMS too proved to be a real game changer as it helped us develop a new culture of technocracy, helping the students in getting global exposure.

What was the idea behind introducing theatre? How did it help shape the students’ personalities?

Theatre was introduced in 2014. Some students hated it, but most of them loved it. It results into that the most mischievous students of the college got involved in theatre activity.

For that group, theatre turned out to be their first love. The group started winning in drama competitions and winning is always contagious.

Now, after three years, drama has become an integral part of the IITE culture. The most mischievous students have become some of the best students of the university. It has helped students become confident, better presenters, focused and polite. Theatre has turned out to be an agent for change.

dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

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UNIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE

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MSU: INSTITUTING NEEDS BASED STUDIES Student Startup and Innovation Policy (SSIP) shall create a much-needed Innovation and Preincubation Ecosystem Support (IPIES) for Students across the state. In the long run, the implication of this policy will help every student to convert their brimming potential into innovation driven business ventures, says Prof Parimal H Vyas, Vice Chancellor, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, in a conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

What is your view on the “Student Startup & Innovation Policy” (SSIP) of the Government of Gujarat. Is it contributing to students ideas?

Student Startup & Innovation Policy” (SSIP) is a first of its kind policy in the country to develop innovation and preincubation ecosystem support for 1.4 million students of the state. It will create strong pipeline of innovations out of research and allied effort across institutes. The policy will also help student to convert their ideas into opportunities that later can be supported as startups through various existing institutional mechanisms.

How is MS University helping student startups to gather funds for the innovation?

This year, the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda organised “Sayaji startup Summit 2017”, initiated by the Institute Leadership and Governance, and in association with Centre for Startups and Startup Vadodara. The Summit acted as a common platform to young and aspiring entrepreneurs, initial stage startups as well as established businesses to pitch their innovative ideas in front of investors and mentors. Approximately Rs 3.5 crore fund was committed by Angel investors. During the event, 18 plus startups were given mentoring

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

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The MS University of Baroda will develop a policy framework by engaging the stakeholders from innovation and startup space to ensure that maximum number of students projects and innovation are based on real life challenges.

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support and 32 were given accelerator support by the Centre for Startups. “Startupedia-The Development Dialogue” organised by tem Paramarsh, mentored by the Centre for Startups, MSU, powered by Institute of Leadership and Governance, MSU, and supported by Startup Vadodara was held on 15-17 September, 2017.

In this event, over 38 startups participated and pitched their ideas. The best three startups got cash prizes along with funding assurance by investors. Similarly, various programme such TIECON Award, Startup Roadshow are organised on regular basis to create awareness.

The National Entrepreneurship Awards which have been instituted by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MoSDE) in association Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) has also been organised

by Centre for Startup .

“Centre for Startups (CFS) of the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda is established to create Innovation and pre-incubation Ecosystem.

Dr. Sunil D.Kahar has given responsibility as coordinator of Centre for Startups to implement the SSIP agenda among student fraternity and to develop student centric innovation and pre-

35 incubation ecosystem”

The MS University of Baroda will develop a policy framework by engaging the stakeholders from innovation and startup space to ensure that maximum number of students projects and innovation are based on real life challenges.

The framework will also help in implementing the necessary changes in academic curriculum, facilitate process to enable and help the students at ideation, proof of concepts, prototypes and next stages of innovation value chains.

University will engage incentivised external experts and stakeholders to make innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem more vibrant and also will establish awards, appreciation and citation trigger for more creativity and innovation.

How the infrastructure at MS University helps technology startups harness their ideas and innovation?

What methodologies have been adopted by the university in the teaching-learning process?

The university has 14 auditoriums, with capacity for 100 to 600 persons, available to host various workshops/conferences related innovation and startup. Students are allowed to use any laboratory under different faculties for innovation and prototyping development. The university has established centre for startups and going to

UNIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE

What role is MS University playing to foster Student Startup ecosystem in the affiliated colleges and university?

develop co-working space, fab lab, meeting room, conference room for smooth function and to operationalise various government scheme.

What are the processes involved for student to be eligible to receive grants and mentoring to their innovation?

How many Student startups has the MS University produced?

Registered students startup will be facilitated for mentoring by eminent mentors and faculty members as well as experts through workshops.

Every year, we organise one startup summit in which students pitch their details in front of investors and funding agencies. University establishes awards, appreciations, and citations to acknowledge best efforts of all stakeholders and inspire them. Centre for startup will support and guide students for preparing proposals and to present their ideas in front of investors. Presently, around 30 startups are working in Centre for Startup and we are also planning to launch at least 10 successful startups.

How many affiliated colleges of MS University are following its footsteps to harness students’ creativity?

What role is the university playing to involve more students and colleges to take advantage of the policy?

Total 14 faculties, three colleges and 24 institutes/ cells are working under the umbrella of the MS University of Baroda. Through circulars, web portals, mailers, newsletters and social media, students and faculty members have been sensitised about student innovations and startup agenda, pitching session, entrepreneurship awareness camps. Boot camps will also be organised in all faculties of the university to reach out to all students.

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Total 14 faculties, three colleges and 24 institutes/ cells are working under the umbrella of the MS University of Baroda. Through circulars, web portals, mailers, newsletters and social media, students and faculty members have been sensitised about student innovations and startup agenda.

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dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

UNIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE

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PANDIT DEENDAYAL PETROLEUM UNIVERSITY— BUILDING ECOSYSTEM FOR STUDENTS To encourage startup, the most important initiative by Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) is the establishment of business incubator - Innovation and Incubation Centre (IIC), at the campus. It is currently incubating 17 startups which are also supported by the State Government, says Abhinav M Kapadia, Chief Financial Officer, PDPU, in conversation with Hemangini Kanth Rajput of Elets News Network (ENN).

How since its inception, “Student Startup & Innovation Policy” (SSIP) of Government of Gujarat is contributing to students’ innovation?

The Student Startup and Innovation Policy (SSIP) implemented by the Higher Education Department, Government of Gujarat, is a very promising initiative to build an ecosystem for students to boost their enthusiasm, innovativeness and creativity. The policy has been designed in a way that it encourages the university, colleges and educational institutions to host events and activities to encourage, aspire entrepreneurship among students. Such initiative also encourages students to work towards finding innovative solution for existing problem.

How is PDPU helping student startups receive right mentoring, infrastructure along with funding for their innovation?

PDPU has established an Incubation centre for its students startups, which is also open to all the innovators. With the help of this incubator, PDPU has installed state-of-art lab facilities with mentors from both industries and inhouse, having expertise in various fields. PDPU ensures that innovative ideas of the students

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

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With the support of IC Department of the State Government, PDPU provides quality innovation with a seed funding of Rs 10 lakh for Prototype building and Rs 10 lakh for Marketing.

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are guided with right set of mentors. PDPU IIC has also appointed professional coaches to assist the existing startups. We also provide access to centre of excellence and laboratories to aspiring entrepreneurs and innovators to encourage them in finding a right solution to existing problem by developing a working prototype. With the support of IC Department of the State Government, PDPU provides quality innovation with a seed funding of Rs 10 lakh for Prototype building and Rs 10 lakh for marketing.

What initiatives have been taken

by PDPU to foster Student Startup ecosystem within the university?

Can you share what processes need to be complied with a student to be eligible to receive grants and mentoring to their innovation?

The most important initiative taken by PDPU to encourage startup is the establishment of business incubator - Innovation and Incubation Centre (IIC) at campus. IIC is currently incubating 17 startups supported by the State government.

Various entrepreneurial events and activities are organised to foster among student fraternity.

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How the university shortlists the ideas that have potential to be a prototype or a product?

At PDPU, students startup or the aspiring entrepreneurs are provided access to laboratories and technical mentorship where the mentor provides students counselling to transform their ideas into innovation. First, their innovation is validated on paper and after certain R&D process, prototyping work begins in the labs with counselling and technical mentoring. Students go through the design thinking process to enhance their perspective towards finding innovative solution. PDPU provides seed funding to innovative student ideas for development of their initial prototype phase. We are currently planning to organise various outreach programmes with maximum student participation and involvement. We aim to

make it mandatory for the first-year students to opt a subject based on innovation and entrepreneurship. We are currently in a process of designing a diploma course for students who wish to pursue entrepreneurship as a career.

How many colleges / institutions affiliated to PDPU are following the footsteps of the university to harness students’ creativity?

PDPU IIC is currently incubating 17 startups, out of which 15 are recognised by the IC Department, Government of Gujarat, and seven of these are student start-ups. PDPU IIC is helping schools for organising Innovation Expedition & Student Innovation Competition.

PDPU IIC has also organised various boot camps, to harness student creativity, within the campus and at different colleges. We also have independent entrepreneurship club solely handled by students.

UNIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE

PDPU IIC has organised events as Start-up Weekend, MIT Media lab (where solution to existing problems were identified and a working model was developed) ITB-360 is a flagship event of IIC where an entrepreneur is invited to interact with students. PDPU IIC believes that the best solutions can be found by younger generation and hence started an initiative called Innovation Expedition is taken by IIC where, Team IIC visits various schools and organises solution oriented camps and encourages them by providing cash prices and token of appreciation. The process for getting involved in an incubator has been kept simple. An online form needs to be submitted by aspiring entrepreneurs and our team approaches the innovator if an Idea is found with innovation and merit, while initial counselling and mentoring is open for all.

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PDPU IIC is currently incubating 17 start-ups, out of which 15 are recognised by IC department Govt. of Gujarat, and seven of these are student startups. PDPU IIC is helping schools for organising Innovation Expedition & Student Innovation Competition.

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dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

UNIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE

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SSIU: ENRICHING ENTREPRENEURSHIP AMONG STUDENTS Creativity is in the blood of students, but to identify it is very important and crucial. We are developing that type of ecosystem here, says Rishabh Jain, President, Swarnim Startup and Innovation University, in a conversation with Divakar Mukherjee of Elets News Network (ENN).

How do you perceive the Gujarat Government’s “Student Startup & Innovation Policy” (SSIP) introduced by the Government of Gujarat. Is it contributing to students’ ideas?

Under the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendrabhai Modi “Startup India, Stand-up India, Make in India and Digital India” the Gujarat Government has approved India’s first university for startup in Gandhinagar, the capital city of Gujarat. The Gujarat government has taken many initiatives for startup India by intruding 1st Student startup policy in India.

At Swarnim Startup & Innovation University (SSIU), we aim to build startup and entrepreneur Eco-system with state of the art technology infrastructure and skill-based education to our youths. We, at SSIU, have created a self propelling engine that creates the nation’s most skilled and competent entrepreneurs. We develop the youth to address society’s basic necessity via innovative ideas and make it a viable business model.

SSIU is on the roadmap of realising Make in India dream by producing entrepreneurs and enterapreneurs through unique pedagogy.

SSIU is in a process of creating mindset and culture which produce degree holder with skills and mindset which make India a hub of global entrepreneurship center by coming out with innovative business model. First time in India, SSIU will go in differnt campus and teach startup and entrepreneurship rather than asking students to come to SSIU campus.

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

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The university is helping the students by providing them fund and mentoring. We have our own incubation centre and we are in the process of attaining a nodal centre of incubation.

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Swarnim Startup & Innovation University (SSIU) proffers Innovation, Startup and Entrepreneurship programmes through conventional education by imparting technical wisdom. SSIU works as a hub-and-spoke model where disciplines like Engineering, Architecture, Science, Management, Medical and Pharmacy will get its value enhancement through Innovation, startup and entrepreneurship.

How is Swarnim Startup and Innovation University helping student startups get funding for their innovation?

University is helping the students by providing them fund and mentoring. We have our own incubation centre and we are in the process of attaining a nodal centre of incubation. In this journey, we have already provided funds to student startups. The university has allocated Rs one crore investment for student startups. As per university mission, we are in the process of generating an ecosystem for the startups. SSIU courses and programmes have been designed for holistic development so that the aspirants become skilled, creative and confident simultaneously.

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How the Swarnim Startup and Innovation University is fostering Student Startup ecosystem in the affiliated colleges and university?

In the ever evolving global market, we need intellectuals who are dynamic, far-sighted and most importantly, innovative. The demand is of innovative thinkers who are ready to take up challenges and overcome them. At Swarnim Startup and Innovation University, the entire programme is developed for fostering startup culture among students, bringing practiceorientation into education, permeating all of the syllabi with design thinking. At SSIU, skill development programme is our holistic vision.

SSIU will work on hub and spoke model to deliver skill base practical education. School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship will act as hub to other schools under SSIU namely, School of Engineering, School of Design, School of Paramedical and School of Science.

In each and every semester of all the courses under SSIU, one compulsory subject related to core skill development will be added. We aim to create students market ready within the course duration.

What infrastructure has the Swarnim Startup and Innovation University installed to help technology startups harness their ideas and innovation?

SSIU Incubation provides inspiring workspaces that is accessible 24x7. It provides access to companies on data resources, domain experts and mentor. Our incubation centre has fullfurnished office with R&D facility, internet connectivity, board meeting space, conference room, intercom, library, along with photocopying, fax and scanning machines. We also provide business and technical support for product building and business plan assistance. We also provide mentoring support for raising funds, availing government schemes funds. Our IT support includes access to professionals with

legal expertise, financial expertise, accounting expertise, IP expertise, industry expertise.

Events and exhibition to showcase their products and solutions are held along with providing networking events to facilitate interaction with investors and industries, training programs and seminars relevant to entrepreneurs.

UNIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE

SSIU makes them intellectually adept; socially and technically sound through initiatives like regular brainstorming sessions, seminars, group discussions, case studies, project presentations and thought provoking events. SSIU promises to not just strengthen their knowledge base but make them proficient enough to confront organisational challenges.

What methodologies have been adopted by the university in the teaching-learning process?

We have a 3-tier Employability Structure.

Firstly, we make students ready with their startup/business concept. Secondly, the startup track is bifurcated along-side 4-year of Graduation course: Startup Track First Year: We train students with their business model concept by igniting idea, motivating them and mentoring.

Startup Track Second Year: We prepare students for setting up finance and infrastructure for establishment along with protecting concepts with Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and expanding horizons by collaborating with various industries.

Startup Track Third Year: For fetching market funding and setting-up a venture capital followed by product development life cycle.

Startup Track Fourth year: For sales and marketing resulting into scalabilities and growth.

What makes students eligible to receive grants and mentoring fortheir innovation? What role is the university playing to involve more students and colleges to take advantage of the policy?

If any startup which is not working successfully then first and most important thing required is identifying problem. We are doing problem identification activity and ideation activity.

We are also focusing on “Sodh Yatra” by which student can identify social problem by which it can be solved. At Swarnim Incubation powered

by SSIU, 11 startups are currently in the progress stage. We have “Swarnim Incubation” where every field of students are involved. We are conducting awareness programme by which students can come to know about startup and innovation. Creativity is in a blood of the students but how to make it out their creativity is very important and crucial. We are developing that type of ecosystem here.

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SSIU, skill development programme is our holistic vision. SSIU will work on hub and spoke model to deliver skill base practical education. School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship will act as hub to other schools under SSIU.

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dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

EDUGORILLA

COLLABORATIVE PLATFORM TO GUIDE INDIVIDUALS

EduGorilla is an online one-stop education community that helps students find the right institute, answers to their queries, read reviews and download study material for them, says Rohit Manglik, Chief Executive Officer, EduGorilla, in an interview with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN).

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Though Ed-Tech has only 1.8 per cent contribution in $100 billion worth of education sector in India, it is gradually expanding its wings and students are gradually adopting the trend.

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Being a one-stop community for students, EduGorilla has partnered with colleges, universities and corporates across the globe, how do you think it will benefit the Indian learners?

In 21st Century, growth cannot be measured in isolation, but how well an entity can integrate with existing products. It’s the same case with EduGorilla. We are fostering a dialogue between stakeholders of Indian education landscape by bringing them on a common platform. We also offer a range of products that aid students to choose a career, college or course they should pursue. Through our portal, learners will be able to get a wide range of choices and can use their cognitive abilities to make informed decisions regarding their career.

Which education segments does EduGorilla majorly focus on and what are your product offerings in these segments?

EduGorilla is a one-stop solution for students from Class Six to Ph.D level. Our product offerings include: Free study material: EduGorilla currently offers around 30,000 free study materials to the students preparing for entrance examinations (a

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

total of 195) of CAT, UPSC,CA, IIT JEE, GRE and the likes.

Directory Listing: Over 56,000 coaching institutes across 52 cities of India are included in the directory listing which is the largest in India. It covers educational preparation centres in almost every corner of the country.

Questions and Answers: EduGorilla hosts a diverse community of students, subject matter experts, professionals, counsellors, and faculty from schools, colleges, and universities. . It helps individuals with their career needs and queries. A “Reputation” feature has been embedded so that those seeking answers to their career–related queries can be helped to decide with confidence.

Articles: EduGorilla portal currently hosts over 5,000 articles on various courses, coaching institutes, competitive examinations and trends in the education sector to help students make informed decisions.

How does the technology make a positive impact on education and how it can enhance the level of education in rural areas?

Though EdTech has only 1.8 per cent contribution in $100 billion worth of education sector in

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What are the challenges that EduGorilla faces when it comes to aligning modern-day technology and meeting student expectations?

One of the major challenges faced by EduGorilla is the slow adaptability of technology among

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E-learning creates extended classroom communities for discussions and virtual classrooms for interaction between students and teachers.

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stakeholders in the education sector. Though the stakeholders in the education sector are technology literate, they are reluctant to adopt technology. Another challenge is to reach out to students in rural areas, who face problems like erratic power supply and low Internet penetration.

Digital India and Skill India are the two most ambitious projects of the Government of India, what are your plans to skill the students and digitise the education system?

EduGorilla doesn’t skill the students directly but acts as a bridge between knowledge seekers and providers. We firmly believe that classroom and e-learning should complement each other rather than replace each other to improve the whole ecosystem.

What are EduGorilla’s plans for upcoming years in the education space?

Currently, we are working to launch a set of free psychometric tests on our portal. It will be a big change in the education sector as conventional players charge hefty amount for such offerings.

In the long run , we foresee ourselves impacting the careers of over 10 lakh students in India through our product offerings.

dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

India, it is gradually expanding and students are adopting the trend. One of the major advantages of adoption of technology in education is that knowledge can be acquired with just a click of the mouse, even by a student living in remote areas of the country. E-learning creates extended classroom communities for discussions and virtual classrooms for interaction between students and teachers. The evolution of Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) technology with its benefits such as competitive cost, multi-cast capability, universal coverage and low-cost and simple installation, can play an instrumental role in bridging the education gap in rural areas.

Technology can be used to enable e-learning which also ensures a unique personalised experience to all students. In a conventional education model, this is only possible when a highly skilled tutor offers one-to-one tutorials.

Thus technology offers tremendous scope especially in underdeveloped and developing countries, as it has the potential to raise a level of education, literacy and economic development.

GUJARAT HACKATHON EVENT REPORT

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SMART GUJARAT FOR NEW INDIA HACKATHON

EMPOWERING CITIZENS THROUGH STUDENTS’ INNOVATIVE IDEAS

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o create and promote the innovation culture and develop the innovation ecosystem across affiliated colleges and universities under the Education Department of Gujarat, the Government of Gujarat recently organiset “Smart Gujarat for New India Hackathon”.

On the occasion, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani inaugurated the “Smart Gujarat for New India Hackathon” as well as the “New Avenues of Modern Education —NAMO” through Wi-Fi in 23 of the 110 universities.

During the event, the Chief Minister also distributed grant-in- aid cheque of worth Rs 440 lakh to 23 organisations including 11 universities and also awarded the winning students of summer innovation challenge under the Student Start-Up Innovation Policy (SSIP).

He also launched a book titled “SSIP Guidelines”. Gujarat launched the SSIP policy on January 2017.

“This young generation has the power to challenge. We gave opportunities to the youth who have not been encouraged since years by increasing seats in 55 different universities, and increasing about 1.25 lakh seats in engineering colleges. Youth of Gujarat are the communicator of this transformation and through their innovative ideas, social and humanitarian measures Gujarat

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

Vijay Rupani, Chief Minister, Gujarat

Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Education Minister, Government of Gujarat

will prosper,” Rupani said. Under the SSIP mandate, various innovative interventions have been suggested to all universities. New efforts at various levels like institutional, pedagogical and community level have been suggested to engage and leverage students across the innovation value chain.

Present at the event, Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama called on the youth to become a pioneer of developmental change.

He announced that the State Government has decided to distribute tablets to three lakh students at a token cost of Rs 1,000.

“If we want development, there is no relaxation without adopting science and technology. It is the state government’s motive to encourage youth to take action to identify the problem and to try to solve it with the help of technology. Today, to solve problems, we need innovative ideas and technology has given the world in the hands of youth,” the minister said.

Giving an outline of the programme, Anju Sharma, Principal Secretary of Higher and Technical Education said: “First one of its kind state sponsored Hackathon involves 16 Departments who have shared 206 problem definitions to be solved by 1,100 teams comprising more than 8,000 students from 202 colleges affiliated to 35 universities under the guidance of 500 unique faculty mentors making it the highest in such open innovation experiment”.

Addressing the audience, KK Nirala, Director, Technical Education, said: “The objective of this Hackathon is to motivate colleges, universities to develop own ways or pedagogies to launch such programmes and utilise summer holidays as a source of harnessing creativity. It also aims to sensitise young minds about various century old challenges which our country and Gujarat, in particular, is facing and how long lasting impact can be achieved if they get solved”.

Minister of State for Education Department Nanubhai Vanani, Chief Secretary JN Singh, vice chancellors and professors of various universities, researchers and students in majority attended the event.

Two startups were especially praised by the dignitaries present at the Hackthon event: Vaibhav Amit Patel, a student of DA-IICT, who developed an app for ‘Finding disease from an image of a crop’ and Jil Sheth, CEPT University, who designed a low cost housing and toilet designs “Universal Accessibility”.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani Launching Namo Wi-Fi

The Chief Minister giving cheque to one of the participants in Hackathon

KK Nirala, Director Technical Education, Government of Gujarat

Hiranmay Mahanta, Executive Member, AICTE Sttarup Commiitee

Anju Sharma, Principal Secretary, Higher & Technical Education, Government of Gujarat

dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

GUJARAT HACKATHON EVENT REPORT

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STARTUP PERSPECTIVE

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VINSPIRE AGROTEC: FELICITATING ECONOMICAL FARMING

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t Vinspire Agrotec, a low cost technology has been developed to help farmers reduce their labouring hours. For example, if a conventional method requires 8-10 hours for planting 10,000 seeds in an acre, using the latest technology of Vinspire may take 3-4 hours to complete the same task. The technology can be used in planting seeds, fertilizer, harvesting crops, etc. There are many high technological machines available in the market but are expensive for small farmers to afford.

MANAN PATEL The technology has started ANJIL JAIN getting positive responses from the farmers. Recently, the company has received a letter from Himachal Pradesh Crop Diversification Promotion Project, Himachal Pradesh, requesting to pitch the product for the project. The company has received genius achiever award from the Chief Minister of Gujarat and Innovation to Impact (i2i) Award on its agriculture implementation from the Gujarat Technical University (GTU) this year. So far, the company has manufactured 8-10 different agro-products.

The Innovation Council of the Gujarat Technological University, as a Nodal institute, helped the oganisation by providing an overall support for the required infrastructure, mentoring and seed funds.

MYPREBOO - ENSURING KIDS’ SAFETY DIGITALLY

K

ushal along with his wife Shweta - graduates and alumni of the a college affiliated to Gujarat University, have launched a mobilebased application “MyPreBoo” for both Android and ios users. The application provides a real-time communication between teachers and parents with terse details about the activities of their kids in a primary school. Teachers of preschools, kindergartens and daycares through this app can record activities of children and send it to their parents with notes attached. The application is currently being used by more than 1800 users across Gujarat, Delhi-NCR, Maharashtra, Bihar and has clients like Kidzee and Bachpan. The company is also planning to launch the application in primary schools based in Zimbabwe. With support from Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC), the entrepreneurs are currently working to upgrade the application for many regional languages of the country.

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

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PRINTING PERCEPTIONS IN 3D WAY

What kind of support the university provided the startup?

GTU Innovation Council has helped us to get the GoG funds and provided us a working place in the city.

Current stage of the startup/innovation, including launch?

Currently we’re at early revenue stage with 18-20 clients using our services and products.

We were in product development stage since last one and half years. We currently have three desktop 3D printer models which are targeted for different segments like schools, colleges, startups, product designing firms, industries, etc. We took job works of various companies while we were testing our machines and started generating revenues from that as well. So we cater both type of clients, one who directly need a 3D printer in-house and second the startups/SME/students who want prototypes without the need to own a printer. We have 3D print farm running in our facility 24x7 which caters the second type of customers.

MOCKTALE: FROM IDEA TO PROTOTYPE I

n its long journey of converting the idea to prototype at Mocktale - The startup has tried to ensure better health alternative along with taste through regular meal.

During the market research it is found that nowadays, youth is highly stressed due to competitive market, being ambitious, family responsibilities and Expectations, corporate jobs and career challenges and can’t be joyous. Mocktale has found Beverage would be the best alternative to fulfill the gap, one would just need to open it and drink it. A drink which is refreshing, nutritional and witty.

The market research revealed that the Beverage market in India is still not updated. Growing consumer health awareness guided us to come up with the idea to make a drink where health meets taste. Special thanks to NDRI, KARNAl and CFTRI, Mysore, where a group of five scientists helped us to convert the idea into the prototype. For over a year an exclusive research has been conducted in this regard. We have studied Science of flavours, role of nutrition in human body, sensory science, packaging science, stability and commercialisation of the products.

Support from University: The university has provided us facilities in every respect like office space along with the grant under the Startup Gujarat Scheme (Government of Gujarat) through Gujarat Technical University (GTU) incubator.

Current Stage: The company is now into rebranding stage where we are doing concept testing, packing innovation, and branding and communication strategy. The company is going to launch its products by end of 2017.

dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

STARTUP PERSPECTIVE

How was the idea converted into a prototype?

When I was working in an MNC, I got uncomfortable with the comfortable life. Since college time, I wanted to do something in future-tech. When I saw 3D printers in action for the first time, I got so fascinated by it that I couldn’t stop thinking about the sheer possibilities this technology have for mankind. That’s when I decided I will be dedicating myself to this field. - Keyur Punjani I first saw a 3D printer in a college fair. I got stuck with the idea of building a 3D printer by my own and thus I started working on it in my last year engineering project. It won me the 1st prize in project competition in my college. And then I met Keyur and we started working together to build a sellable product. - Ishan Padaliya

STARTUP PERSPECTIVE

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CMP INDUSTRIES — DEVELOPING A TOOL FOR ALL A

nand Mundhava and Yashomati Mundhava have founded CPM Industries. Government of Gujarat has played a vitol role to develop the prototype by providing a monetary support of Rs 10 lakh at the development stage. The company has developed a kit with integration of 56 different types of tools like hexagon keys, knife, pliers, wire, rod cutter, etc. The tool can come handy in the areas like aerospace engineering, aviation, automotive, household, boating, gardening and other special jobs for manual operation which combines pliers and automatic adjustable wrench to quickly clamp objects. CPM Industries is the inventor and manufacturer of awards winner Innovative hand tools that are introduced for the first time in world for operating nuts/bolts, hex head bolts, screws, etc. We are using high quality alloy steel as raw material in manufacturing of the tool to maintain its quality standards for “Limited Life Time warranty”.

STUDENT STARTUPS TO LAUNCH ‘PATHBREAKING’ TECHNOLOGY IN CRICKET R

aja K and Rajkumar Mishra along with seven interns are currently developing a technology named “Bemrr”. The technology will monitor various performances related to cricket. The Gujarat University Student Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC) is providing all the infrastructure to the startup for developing the technology. There are no such inventions yet in this popular game. The team is being working on this technology for past 18 months. In order to attract venture capitalists, incubators, facilitators for investment, the team has visited Bengaluru and Hyderabad. With the help of GUSEC the team is able to focus on developing the technology. Although the GUSEC ecosystem is at developmental phase, yet the facilities here is at par with the incubation centers and IT hubs in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. GUSEC is a place where students can get a space to work from by just putting their idea. Beta version of this technology is soon going to be launched.

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

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Wiztrit is a first of its kind mobile platform for reading interesting excerpts from popular books. Through these excerpts, readers form a first hand opinion of an author’s work, which helps them decide whether they would like to read the entire book. The founders are getting mentorship and incubation at Ganpat University Incubation Centre, speaks about their product Wiztrit is a platform which not only helps the readers discover new books, but also serves as a daily entertainment and knowledge source. In addition, publishers and authors will use this platform to promote their books.

The concept is novel and novelty has great value. There is always a chance of exceeding expectations. Novelty can be a gamble but we have a positive outlook. Also, we have seen acceptance from current users. Reading is addictive if you know what kind of writing suits you. Wiztrit will help grow this wonderful addiction.

Problems and their Solutions: l Lack of globally qualified and reputed content: Content in long form is rising in popularity eg. quora, medium, etc.

However, at social platforms most of their content lacks quality. At Wiztrit, excerpts from the books are extracted with text-analytics algorithms and are then perused manually to ensure quality content. l Lack of a proper book discovery platform: Goodreads recommends books on user’s reading history. We let the user judge the book after they’ve read an excerpt. Sampling the content of the books is much reliable method than what an algorithm tells you.

Wiztrit Pitch Deck

TRAZO: BRIDGING THE EMPLOYABILITY GAP A

nTrazo is an Ed-tech venture created with a clear intention of serving education industry to help students grow and choose their career in right direction. Trazo is an acronym of 2 words Training + Zone, company’s entire world of business is in this two words. In each of the product or services offered at Trazo, the motive is to train people to make informed career choices.

Core business idea is to provide trainings to students on the required skills which is highly acceptable by the industry and technology has a huge role to play in the concept. Along with the training, Trazo is creating a product to assess skills of an individual and based on the same tailor made training modules can be deployed.

The company is more inclined towards long term learning programme which are technology driven and curriculum integrated which gives more structured learning to the students. The organisation started its operation in July 2015 with 3 partners working into different domains to do strong primary research of the industry before we get started delivering. Initial 6 months, the team was completely focused on the research of the education industry and understanding student’s behaviour for the adoption of training programmes and technology.

BRIDGING THE EMPLOYABILITY GAP

BUSINESS PLAN Version 2.0 About Document

Document contains detailed business plan of Trazo with understanding of each of each product and services offered

Created by: Team Trazo

19/4/2016

dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

STARTUP PERSPECTIVE

WIZTRIT: A GLIMPSE INTO THE BEST BOOKS

STARTUP PERSPECTIVE

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THE TECHNIFICATION: HELPING PEOPLE DIGITALLY

T

his company is based on electrical and electronics background as the partners of this firm are electrical engineers and have been working on many projects from some time so they made those projects into something that can be helpful for people and which could help us to start up our business. The basic area is of electrical gadgets, Artificial Intelligence system and devices.

Jay D Patel is an electrical engineer and has done his M.Tech (electronics) from Nirma Institute of Te c h n o l o g y.

He is the founder of “The Technification”.

He has experience of working with projects based on electronics. Jay has presented two international and three national research papers in well-known journal.

“The Technification” was awarded by best startup in Pharma Vision -2017 by Honorable CM of Gujarat Shri Vijay Rupani sir. Mr. Ujwal Sikriwal, (B.E. - Electrical, Student of Swarnim Startup and innovation University CEO of “The Technification”) Mr. Shivanshu Pandya B.E. - Electrical, Student Of Swarnim Startup and innovation University CEO of “The Technification”) were working on this concept since last two years in the incubation center. A good support was received from “Swarnim Incubation” and from SSIU (Swarnim Startup and Innovation University) to enhance the startup on large scale.

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

BBT: DESIGNING AUTOMATED SERVICES AND SOLUTIONS

F

ounded in July 2016 and based in Gandhinagar, Bits and Board Technologies (BBT) is a new venture started by experienced researchers and academicians. BBT proffers technology solutions and services along with the exceptional business values. BBT supports enterprises, technology providers, and startup products in the domains of consumer devices-electronics, industrial automation, sensor networking, healthcare, IoT, electronics R&D, electronics product realisation, security, surveillance, education & annual system maintenance businesses.

A sophisticated autonomous controlling approach has been adopted to reduce energy consumption with the same legacy and comfort in Auto Power pro. Product functioning is based on high-tech computer vision, deep learning algorithm and sensor fusion. It has decisive capabilities for monitoring persons and their actions. Currently the concept controls doors, shutter windows, curtains, AC, Fan, TV-channels and lightings that too without any human interface like touch screen or mobile applications.

Prototyping analysis shows 16% average energy saving upon a home with smart home automation system pre-installed summing up to minimum 20% energy saving.

The product is being mentored by Swarnim Incubation.

Among many facilities, we are using 3D modeling lab, prototype development lab, mentoring and networking sectors at Swarnim Incubation. They have a strong mentor pool with very experienced experts from the domain of technology, business development, marketing and international entrepreneurship experts. Swarnim Incubation helped us setting up a good relationship with government authorities, which gave us an opportunity to pitch our concept in front of investors and help introducing it into the cutting edge competitive market.

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TECHOITE: DIGITAL CONTENT PROVIDER STARTUP PERSPECTIVE

T

echoite is a startup from the students of Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara which was idealised and developed

by Parth Jaiswal (founder) from and Poojan Rathod (Co-founder).

It began with the sole aim of giving the best material to junior students by their senior students in the most organised format.

It will be segmented into colleges, departments, years, subjects, topics and more. it will also consist of news feed where news of all the engineering innovations, exams, events ,videos of experts on personality building, aptitude tests, future planning will be available for free of cost.

The startup was a great success and won the TIECON Vadodara competition in the prototype phase and selected for nodal plane funding after a month. Basically this is the youngest startup experienced 200+ downloads in a span of 12 hours and made a business of over Rs 10,000 on the first day itself. The team is now getting bigger and spreading its roots in all the colleges of Gujarat.

AAHAR - YOUR DAILY RECIPES FINDER T

he major problem in our day-to-day life is “what we want to cook in daily routine?” It is observed that women are so confused to cook food in breakfast, lunch, dinner. AAHAR has come up with a creative idea for solving this problem digitally. To solve this problem, the company plans to launch a mobile application. The name they have come up with the app for android-based mobiles is “AAHAR - YOUR DAILY RECIPES FINDER”. Using this app, the company hopes to solve most of the problems faced by women while planning to cook. To be available on Google Play Store with the requirement for users to register themselves, one would be able to select at least 4-5 food items from the digital MENU. Once the selection is made, the recipes for food would pop up on the screen. The user would also have the choice to purchase any food item available on this application. Through this idea for app, the company believes it would be able to address the problem it has set out to solve. The main aim for creating this application is that the user need not ask others before cooking and yet be able to create yummy recipes. The company is currently conducting in-depth surveys in different parts of the world to get the taste of the recipies right. Currently, the start-up is doing our all activity in Swarnim Incubation Centre of the Swarnim Startup and Innovation University and is feeling very confident and energetic under the mentorship of Jay D Patel and Bhargav Makodia.

dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

STARTUP PERSPECTIVE

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AUTOMATIC MULTI POINT SPANNER

MECHANICAL SPY HAWK

W

e are working in a startup which is about “Automatic Multi Point Spanner.

The spanners are generally used to loosen or tighten screws in vehicles. It is a small and handy tool used for assembly of vehicles.

Generally, the spanner is useful in automobile industry, garages and service stations, etc. The components used in the project include gear arrangements, nut fitting arrangement, motor, shafts, pinion, cam, follower arrangements, etc.

The main aim of the start-up is to fix all nuts in a vehicle at once and remove them at once. The main concept of the project is nut fitting and removing them without human help. The heart of the project and implementation is motor.

The purpose of the project is to design a tool, which can be applied to all the mechanisms and in all types of vehicles for removing and fixing nuts. Various types of wrenches are used to assemble or disassemble the vehicle parts. This process is time consuming. We require torque spanners to save mechanics energy as well as time, so we are going to design a multi-tasking tool which is easy to use and easy to carry. We are working in Swarnim Incubation, where all kinds of facilities for startups are available.

Here, the mentoring guidance is given by Chintan A Prajapati. Our Swarnim Startup and Innovation University is helping us in all our activities within the campus.

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

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ECHANICAL SPY HAWK, as the name suggests, is useful to military for surveillance and spying. This product can also be called a modified drone. A mechanical spy hawk is a light weight and powerful mechanical hawk which is fully designed on the basis of FLAPPING WINGS MECHANISM with a battery connection that can provide sufficient power to the flapping wing.

In the design of hawk there is a pair of high resolution cameras which is used to capture as well as record the circular movements.

The main aim of this product is to help BSF (Border Security Force) soldiers in surveillance. The main problem arise in drones is the recognition of drone by the enemies. Hence, this problem has been solved by introduction of our product. The movement and design of our product is the same as natural hawk. The SSIU and faculties are helping us to achieve the desired goal. They help us by providing sufficient knowledge about the product and procedure to make the product successful. Faculty is also helping us by providing the information of components and availability of components in the market. The collaboration between the faculty and students is great as they are always willing to help the students to overcome their problems.

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With the advancement of technology and development of more robust and dynamic ready-to-use microcontrollers, digital applications are increasing in all the domains -- ranging from consumer electronics to healthcare. With an added advantage of entry level to high-end ready to interface electronics sensors, a complex, sophisticated and advanced digital application can be deployed in the physical world. Designing a new digital application is a challenging task due to its wide range of parameters affecting the system performance. Designer and developer follows a common practice of prototype development for verification and performance check. USDB is designed to target a 10th standard hobbyist as well as an industry expert, as a complete solution for all the sensor-level application prototyping and development. USDB is compatible enough to implement a fast processing algorithm application with a remarkable capacity of one million instructions per seven nano seconds. USDB comes with a unique feature of developing your own system with current support of more than 50+ sensors. It has backward as well as forward compatibility, which makes it a one-point solution for all the application development needs with multiple numbers of sensors. USDB will be of plug and play type with the minimum need of external hardware interfacing. An internally loaded programme makes it userfriendly to work with, especially for hobbyist with less or fewer technical knowledge. Instead of loading programme here user have to just press selection keys for activating corresponding sensor and its output will be displayed on LCD. Due to its forward and backward compatibility developers can design their own complex application. We are a new bee at Swarnim Incubation powered by Swarnim Startup and Innovation University. Mentors here are experienced and experts in their domains.

SMART CART THE FUTURE OF SHOPPING I

n today’s world, everything is getting smarter with the advancement in technology. But for a long time we haven’t seen any significant advancement in the shopping experience from malls and supermarkets. It is still the same way as it was in the 90’s -- carting the items and waiting in the queue for checkout. This process in this modern world seems time consuming and boring. The experience goes even worse during sales and festive holiday shopping offers when everyone tries to grab the deals. What if we introduce a system with quick checkout and no queuing? Keeping this in view, we decided to introduce a smart cart.

This is an automated and time saving system for the world of retail which can enhance one’s shopping experience, is customer friendly and secure. The proposed product is capable of generating bill from the cart itself which will end the traditional process of waiting in a long queue for checkout and, as an add-on feature, the tagged items will be monitored live on the backhand. The designed cart will make the best use of available storage space and also includes theft control mechanism. The smart cart uses NFC technology for shopping and payment. We, the students of Swarnim Startup and Innovation University, are powered by an experienced faculty at the Swarnim Incubation Centre who are available for support with live mentoring on campus and also with online support via social networking. Facilities of high profile lab with all modern electronics equipment, that too at no cost, is a kick start, provoking us to move further for building the product more efficiently.

dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

STARTUP PERSPECTIVE

HEALTHCARE THE DIGITAL WAY

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STARTUP PERSPECTIVE

OROTONS Q

ualiMed discovers, develops, manufactures, and delivers innovative human therapeutics. It is bringing safe, effective medicines from lab to manufacturing plant and then to patients. It is committed to advancing science to dramatically improve people’s lives. QualiMed focuses on innovative therapeutics with convenient application. OroTons is a non-aerosol technology, specially designed for oromucosal diseases.

It is fastest, most effective and convenient way to get instant pain relief from oromucosal diseases. OroTons is easy, simple and advance medical device so it is highly compliance for pediatric and geriatric patients. This OROMUCOSAL SPRAY developed under guidance with team of of Arihant School of Pharmacy. Qualimed pharma was established to address unmet needs for oromucosal diseases and we have successfully developed proven and recommended India’s first instant pain relief from traumatic oromucosal diseases.

BOEKART Three students of Swarnim Startup and Innovation University (SSIU) have organised a startup under the guidance of SSIU, with a motive to serve the youth generation in field of education by providing them books at low price, so that everyone can get a chance to enhance their knowledge by pursuing books. SSIU has provided a foundation platform for our startup by providing best facilities with a highly featured incubation center and under the guidance of experts that are helping us at every beginning step of the startup. We are working under the guidance of Jay Patel sir and Bhargav Makodia sir, the two experts of startup. Our startup is based on online selling and buying of books. We have mainly targeted academic books. We provide all kind of academic books (old / new), the main aid that we provide to our customers is by providing them old books at almost half price of the book, by which anyone can afford to buy costly books. We have targeted to provide an E-market of books to everyone, where anyone can sell or buy at profitable price just by sitting at home. Our business is basically an E-commerce based service which includes home to home service. We provide books in good condition and at best offers for our buyers and sellers. Hence, our basic motive is to save customers’ time and money by providing them ease in book shopping.

OCTOBER 2017 | dl.eletsonline.com

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ishore Kapadia and Sumit Salia both an alumni of LM College, previously affiliated to Gujarat University and later merged with Gujarat Technological University, launched ‘Pi Sport’, a sport drink in the market a quarterback in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in May 2017. The drink said to be developed along the scientific lines provides healthier nutritious beverages containing less calories and more vitamins and mineral-based drink, making it unique from all other sport drinks.

It took six months from conceptualization to launching of Pi Sport. Kapadia and Salia are the founders of Pi Nutrition, a startup developing health and wellness drinks based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The product was already launched before they started incubation at GUSEC for support on marketing strategy. It provided Pi Nutrition assistance in two ways: Getting better markets and build contacts required for proper marketing and; build proper entrepreneurship. It has also helped the entrepreneurs reach potential people having network links with investors and venture capitalists. The product has been launched in Ahmedabad, Delhi and Mumbai.

LI-FI: SURFING INTERNET IN A FASTER WAY A

few years ago, the Internet could be used only with the help of the Local Area Network (LAN) cable. This type of technique was only feasible in personal computers (PCs) not with the mobile phones or tablets. The solution for the problem is Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity). Through radio signals, a certain amount of data is transferred through the technology. The Wi-Fi system can easily get connected with appliances like laptop, computer, mobile phone, printer, tablet, etc. Growing uses of Internet, now requires high speed of data transfer. Connected device’s configuration and the server at service provider’s end is the deciding factor of Internet. Number of users connected to a Wi-Fi network is also a deciding factor for the speed of Internet. More the number of users, lesser will be the speed, which is a drawback of this technology.

Li-Fi (light fidelity) is the solution to this problem. The speed in a Li-Fi network is higher than a Wi-Fi network. This technology uses light to transfer the data from one end to other. “Swarnim Incubation” helped in developing the prototype for Li-Fi. The company is getting all facility related startup and mentoring support from the faculty members of the incubation centre.

dl.eletsonline.com | OCTOBER 2017

STARTUP PERSPECTIVE

PINUTRION, A BEVERAGE WITH LESS CALORIE MORE VITAMINS K

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IIIT VADODARA: AN INSTITUTION OF INNOVATORS IIIT Vadodara has introduced policies to promote innovation, which is covered under the institute’s intellectual property rights (IPR) policies. The innovation cell conducts seminars from time to time to create awareness regarding the activities of the cell, says Prof Sarat Kumar Patra, Director, IIIT Vadodara, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

How the Student Startup & Innovation Policy (SSIP) of Gujarat Government is contributing to students’ innovation?

This is a welcome step taken by the Government of Gujarat to promote startups in the State as well in the country. Through SSIP students will get platform to showcase their ideas globally and the opportunities to interact with investors from financial point of view.

Having right skills and guidance plays a pivotal role for any startup.

How IIIT Vadodara is helping student startups to get right mentorship, infrastructure along with funding for their innovation?

This year, we have initiated the innovation cell at IIIT Vadodara to facilitate the conversion of innovative ideas of our students into viable product.

IIIT Vadodara is committed to provide amenities such as infrastructure, IT resources and funding for basic modules under the banner of innovation cell.

What are the initiatives taken by IIIT Vadodara to foster Student Startup ecosystem within the institute? What are the processes involved for the student to be eligible to receive grants and mentoring for their innovation?

Students send their ideas to the innovation cell.

Based on the committee recommendation, students are eligible to get Institute funding for the same. The innovation cell committee monitors the progress and provides the proper guidance from time to time.

How is the IIIT Vadodara refining

“

IIIT Vadodara is promoting student startup and innovation in a broader way. At IIIT Vadodara, we actively promote the culture of research and innovation.

Although we are in a nascent stage, we are fully committed to make IIIT Vadodara an institution of innovators.

”

students’ ideas so that it can be converted into a prototype or a product?

What assistance does the government provide to the student startups during the pre-incubation phase?

At IIIT Vadodara, we have innovation cell for the same. We ask students to send their ideas to the innovation cell in a proper format. A committee examines the ideas based on its novelty and gives its recommendation to the innovation cell incharge. Regarding the government assistance for the students’ startups, we are in the process of establishing the mechanism.

How many student startups have graduated from your institute?

How IIT is planning to involve more students to take the advantage of its policies and facilities?

In the present scenario, students are working on some ideas including fully-formed startups to launch, while others are in line. We have introduced policies for the same which is covered under the institute’s intellectual property rights (IPR) policies. The innovation cell conducts seminars from time to time to create awareness regarding the activities of the cell.

What message would you give to our readers about the Student Startup & Innovation Policy adopted by the institute?

IIIT Vadodara is promoting student startup and innovation in a broader way. At IIIT Vadodara, we actively promote the culture of research and innovation. Although we are in a nascent stage, we are fully committed to make IIIT Vadodara an institution of innovators.

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26-27 NOVEMBER