Startup Perspective of Gujarat

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October 30, 2017

VINSPIRE AGROTEC: FELICITATING ECONOMICAL FARMING
At 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. The technology has started 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

Kushal 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.

PRINTING PERCEPTIONS IN 3D WAY

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

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 24×7 which caters the second type of customers.

MOCKTALE: FROM IDEA TO PROTOTYPE

In 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.

CMP INDUSTRIES — DEVELOPING A TOOL FOR ALL

Anand 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

Raja 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.

WIZTRIT: A GLIMPSE INTO THE BEST BOOKS

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.

TRAZO: BRIDGING THE EMPLOYABILITY GAP

AnTrazo 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.

THE TECHNIFICATION: HELPING PEOPLE DIGITALLY

This 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 Technology. 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.

BBT: DESIGNING AUTOMATED SERVICES AND SOLUTIONS

Founded 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.

TECHOITE: DIGITAL CONTENT PROVIDER

Techoite 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

The 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.

AUTOMATIC MULTI POINT SPANNER

We 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.

MECHANICAL SPY HAWK

MECHANICAL 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.

HEALTHCARE THE DIGITAL WAY

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

In 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.

OROTONS

QualiMed 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.

PINUTRION, A BEVERAGE WITH LESS CALORIE MORE VITAMINS

Kishore 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.

Now, MHRD to rank Kendriya Vidyalayas

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By

Akash

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October 30, 2017

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), in first of its kind initiative, is going to rank over 1,000 Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs).

The objective of the government’s initiative is to improve the institutes through holding a competition among them, sources said. The process for the same has been started and the outcome is expected to be declared in June 2018. The move is followed by the instructions of Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar to improve Kendriya Vidyalayas, the source added.

According to sources, inspection of schools would be done twice for the ranking which would be an annual exercise from next year.

With maximum 1,000 points, the KVs will be graded under four categories. KVs with 80 per cent and above will be under A category (excellent), KVs with 60-79.9 per cent will be under B category (very good), 40-59.9 per cent in C (Good) category, and below 40 per cent will be under D (average) category.

To assess over 1,000 KVs, there would be seven parameters including academic performance which will carry the highest weightage of 500 points. The other categories will be school infrastructure (150 points) and school administration (120 points). Other heads under which schools would be marked include finance (70 points), community participation (60 points), grace points (90 points) and overall observation by the inspectors (10 points).

This would be the first official ranking of Kendriya Vidyalayas in the country.

Government since last two years is also conducting the ranking through National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). NAAC – an autonomous body funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC) assess higher education institutes.

The Kendriya Vidyalayas are central government schools in the country instituted under the aegis of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). Its one of the main objectives includes catering to the educational needs of children of transferable Central government staff including defence and para-military personnel by providing a common programme of education.

Delhi’s corporation schools to become English medium from next academic session

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By

Akash

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October 30, 2017

Schools under municipal corporations of East Delhi and North Delhi will adopt English as the medium of teaching for all subjects from the next academic session.

East Delhi Municipal Corporation’s (EDMC) Education Committee chairman Himanshi Pandey said, “All 365 schools under the purview of EDMC will introduce English as the compulsory medium of instruction for students of nursery and Class I, and optional for other classes”.

“It might be be difficult for students already learning in Hindi to switch. So we will have the option of Hindi for classes other than nursery,” she said, adding, “The idea is to gradually make it completely English medium.” According to her, the decision will help the students in their higher studies.

The North civic body of national capital has 765 schools, EDMC has 365 and SDMC has 581 schools under their jurisdiction — till Class V. After Class V, those studying in MCD schools migrate to schools under the Delhi government.

South Delhi Municipal Corporation has already announced that all schools under its purview will have one section each in nursery and Class I, which would use English as the medium of instructions. Students in over 1,700 government schools across the city will now have the option to learn in English medium.

North Delhi mayor Preety Aggarwal said, “We already have some schools where we are teaching in English but our target is to make English the medium of instruction in at least one section in all schools.”

The North civic body introduced English as the medium of instruction in one section each in around 30 schools in 2013 that gradually been increased to one section each in around 100 more schools.

A senior official of East Corporation said one of the main reasons behind the high dropout rate in municipal schools is also that they do not have English medium. “If the financial condition of a parent improves, he/she generally prefers to send the child to a private school,” he said.

Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University— Building Ecosystem For Students

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digitalLEARNING Network

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October 30, 2017

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

HRD Ministry to implement 17 point action plan in universities by end of this year

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By

Akash

-

October 30, 2017

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is soon going to implement the 17 point action plan in all the universities across India by December 2017.

The action plan was adopted during the National Convention on Digital initiatives held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on July 9, 2017. The plan was also forwarded to all the universities on August 1, 2017.

MHRD has also issued a letter to all the universities to facilitate better functioning and improvement of academic standard. In the letter, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar has highlighted that the initiatives like SWAYAM and SWAYAM Prabha (DTH Channels) have improved the educational standards significantly but their full potential is yet to be realised.

Javadekar through the letter has asked all the universities to monitor and measure the improvement brought about by these initiatives by conducting meetings with affiliated colleges.

The ministry has also directed All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) to design a portal Digital Action Plan implementation to monitor the progress of the digital action plan. It is expected that the will be operational by November 10, 2017.

The Universities will be required to enter their progress on each of the 17 points of the action plan by logging in to the portal. This would not only help in identifying Universities for felicitation but also such Universities which may need help and assistance from the Ministry.

MSU: Instituting Needs Based Studies

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digitalLEARNING Network

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October 30, 2017

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 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 .

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.

“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-incubation ecosystem”

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

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 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.

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.

GTU: Bringing Innovation In Professional Education

By

digitalLEARNING Network

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October 29, 2017

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).

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 get funds for their innovation?

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.

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

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 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.

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

Since its inception, how many Student startups has the Gujarat Technological University produced. What are the eligibility criteria for students to receive grant and funding for their innovation?

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.

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.

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.

IITE: Taking Teachers’ Education To The Next Level

Higher Education

By

digitalLEARNING Network

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October 29, 2017

**Dr Shashiranjan Yadav**, Vice-Chancellor, Indian Institute of Teacher Education, Gandhinagar

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).

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.

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.

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 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.

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