PART-2
Key Steps for Universities to Enhance Startup Growth:
Discover to Uncover
Every University, institution must to scan their local and regional environments. Visit nearby areas, assess socio economic challenges. Interact with local industries, artisans and business communities. This is important to understand and define the problem in its right perspective. What are the issues that people and society are experiencing? It can be health care, transportation, agriculture, banking, education and any other sector.
Almost 70% of Higher Education Institutions in India are in rural belts and given the immense local issues and challenges, local research can open significant opportunities for young minds towards developing solutions. In fact, data indicates that solving local problems & providing solutions at scale in diverse is the vital reason for the increasing number of startups from these parts of the country. It is also significant to note that 49% of start-ups are from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, which has turned to be a game-changer as the business advantages in these locations enable entrepreneurs to operate at lower costs as compared to tier-1 cities
However, this requires institutional and academic leadership to step out of their comfort zones and come out from their traditional academic mindsets and network outside the boundaries of their campuses. Through this process teachers can engage students and offer them such internship assignments that will facilitate them to understand local problems for developing solutions.
Design to Deliver
More than 600 million people in India are aged between 18 and 35. With 65% under the age of 35, India’s demographic dividend needs to be translated into a demographic advantage. With a 29% of Gross Enrolment Ratio and technology disrupting every field, student thinking needs to be channelized towards becoming a job creator instead of job seeker. This puts a significant responsibility on our Academic Leaders need to design and develop curriculum in such a way that develops an entrepreneurial mindset to enhance creativity and critical thinking. The curriculum design must create opportunities for students to help understand how entrepreneurship works from a young age and build tenacity and resilience where they learn to take failures as a part of the journey and do not get frustrated by them easily.
Designing curriculum with these objectives will help students through their life by making them more tolerant and aware of their abilities to carve the right path. The curriculum design needs to be student centric where they learn skills more applicable to entrepreneurs. Given that entrepreneurship is not a linear process and creativity is central to it, finding structure is an unstructured process. It is therefore important to incorporate Design Thinking into the curriculum. Design thinking is a practical approach where students step out of the class room, This experimental design can help students to gain deeper perspectives of the real world issues for better reflection. Curriculum can also incorporate Hackathons and Idea Generation besides making Brainstorming an important aspect of teaching and learning process inside the classroom and campus.
Incubation Centres
Startup India reports have indicated that incubated start-ups develop a lot quicker than their non-incubated counterparts and their survival rate is additionally 40% higher at 80%. The studies also suggests that incubators or university spin-offs could act as catalysts in speeding the entrepreneurial growth in an economy. The reports show that an increase in the number of incubators would have a positive implication for the start-up ecosystem by catering to the growing demand and increasing the success rate of start-ups, thereby promoting entrepreneurship and innovation.
Therefore, every institution needs to establish dedicated incubation centres. Create spaces within universities where aspiring entrepreneurs can receive mentorship, access technology and resources, and collaborate with like-minded individuals. These incubation centres will serve as hubs for idea generation and development. An incubator firm helps grow a startup from an early-stage idea to a company that can stand on its own. Incubators help entrepreneurs by providing practical, concrete resources that may be difficult for a new business to obtain or afford. Incubators provide many support services that include office space, administrative functions, education and mentorship, access to investors and capital, and idea generation.
One notable example is the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, which has established the IITM Incubation Cell. This cell has nurtured several successful startups, including hyperlocal delivery platform Dunzo and healthcare technology company Perfint Healthcare. More than 1500 start ups have been incubated under the Startup India Scheme as per the latest report
Industry Collaboration
The collaboration between industry and academia encourages open-mindedness, where students are motivated to share and publish discoveries, improve themselves to optimum capabilities, and be market-ready and job-ready faster and with more self-confidence. The collaboration helps students to understand how enterprises are created, managed, and successfully run besides understanding challenges and opportunities within the entrepreneurial ecosystem and emerging market needs. Creating Next Gen Startups is the need of the hour and industry academia collaboration can boost this objective. Industry Academia partnerships will also foster a mutually benefitting exchange between Knowledge generators and business actors.
Collaborative research between Industry and Academia can lead to more inventions, innovations, and patents there by making outcomes socially beneficial and economically meaningful. Countries with strong industry-academia collaborations are often more competitive globally due to a robust innovation ecosystem. As per World Intellectual Property Organization, India ranks 40th out of 132 economies on Global Innovation Index.
Every institution must set up a Corporate Relations Department or an Industry Integration Cell that extensively works on building Partnerships with Industry and seek their support to provide students with real-world insights, industry-specific challenges, and potential areas for innovation. These partnerships can bridge the gap between academia and industry, fostering practical skills. This exposure will raise the level of skills and understanding of the students and will prepare them to think and act like an employer.
The joint research can facilitate creation of startups and enterprises. However the biggest challenge in industry academia partnership is that academics typically prioritize fundamental research for establishing new concepts, while industries focus on applied research for process improvement and maximization of profits thereby creating a significant cross-purpose conflict. This is where academic leaders must think out of box and develop more meaningful and purposeful partnerships that lead to creation of startups for socio-economic growth.
Many organizations in India are already collaborating with many IITs, universities and start-ups in the country in Quantum Computing, AI, Design and Edge Computing and many other emerging areas and this high opportunity area is awaiting a strong and structure response from Indian Universities and Higher Education Institutions.
Seed Funding Initiatives
Every University and HEI must develop their own Startup Policies to promote nurturing of ideas and startups within the campus. As a policy, Institutions must earmark some funds as a financial support that can be offered to students to pursue their ideas while inside the campus. This fund is aimed at encouraging innovators who need early-stage funding to work on their research discoveries, college project ideas etc. Providing financial support in the early stages can be a catalyst for turning innovative ideas into viable startups. Institutions can also connect students with Venture Capitalists or Angel Investors as well to further support the success of the ideas at later stages as well.
These policies can further bring focus to prioritize seed funding to such ideas that have potential to translate into startups in emerging areas and technology integrated HEI’s can also set up their own Section 8 companies that can seek funds from corporates, industries or philanthropists who are ready to financially support social entrepreneurs on other innovative ideas.
Hackathons, Innovation Challenges and Competitions
Institutions must host Hackathons, Idea Competitions and encourage students to participate in innovation challenges and startup competitions. These events will not only showcase their ideas but also provide opportunities for networking and exposure to the entrepreneurial ecosystem. These initiatives can also be arranged in partnership with industries to work on live ideas and also have students getting mentored to shape their ideas for better outcomes.
Every year since 2012, NASA has been inviting people to join their International Space Apps Challenge, a two-day hackathon where publicly available data is used to find new solutions to global challenges (SpaceApps). The most renowned hackathon story is probably the one of the company GroupMe. The mobile group-messaging app was developed at the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon in 2010, raised $11.5 million USD in funding and was acquired by Skype in August 2011 Microsoft acquired Skype later that same year.
However academia is yet to fully recognize the significance of Hackathons as a ground for creating start-ups. Even though the concept has been adopted and adapted and is used in a wide range of different sectors, academia has not been able to fully leverage this. There it is a great opportunity for HEI’s to make Hackathons or Idea competitions as an vehicle to create startups.
Teachers as Transformers
As the world changes, so do the skills. Students need to be continuously trained and skilled in such a way that will help them to become a lifelong learner, build a sustainable career and a better society. Teachers need to practice innovative teaching and training pedagogies that encourage students to chart their own course through an independent thinking. They need to help students to think broadly that helps them to unleash their creativity.
The traditional teaching and training models need to be reformed and student centric models need to be adopted. The traditional methods focus on pre packaged ideas and linear thinking while as the need of today is to encourage students to think and ideate. Students are often asked by teachers to do something or follow some steps. This prevents them from thinking creatively that is key to entrepreneurial thinking. Teachers have to create such classroom environment where students start to question the rules and think about new possibilities. Through use of classroom space, intentional course design and scheduling, and building “brand” identity, teachers can create a startup culture of empowerment and innovation for their students.
Startups requires some key skills and Teachers can develop a holistic pedagogy to equip students with such skills by introducing, critical thinking and innovation, design thinking for entrepreneurs, market research strategy and Continuous improvement based on seeking continuous feedback. Teachers can plan to invite successful entrepreneurs who can interact with students besides facilitating networking opportunities for the students. Teachers also need to incorporate practical assignments that involve solving real-world problems. This hands-on experience helps students develop problem-solving skills essential for entrepreneurship.
Imagine our academic institutions where all graduates leave with an entrepreneurial idea already in motion
Conclusion:
By aligning academic curricula with the demands of the entrepreneurial landscape and fostering a supportive ecosystem, Indian universities can significantly contribute to the growth of startups. Teachers, as mentors and guides, play a crucial role in shaping the entrepreneurial mindset of students. Through collaborative efforts, universities can become epicentres of innovation, driving economic development and positioning India as a global hub for startups that will take India faster on the path of Viksit Bharat
Swami Vivekananda said, “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, and live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success that is way great spiritual giants are produced”
(Concluded)
(The Author is Vice Chancellor, Shri Vishwakarma Skill University)
