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.
