Universities encourage student entrepreneurs to boost startup culture

Institutes have better infrastructure and trained manpower now but hands-on business experience is needed

- Rajlakshmi.Ghosh timesgroup.com

To boost the entrepreneurial ecosystem in universities, AICTE issued an advisory in 2019 to explore provisions of oncampus accommodation and permitting semester breaks for student entrepreneurs working on their startups. Several institutes introduced measures to promote entrepreneurship, but many are still struggling due to a lack of clarity about the idea of entrepreneurship. With multiple entry-exit options and credits now being encouraged for the curriculum and beyond, more HEIs are likely to adopt a flexible startup culture in future.

"The ecosystem entrepreneurial today is better than before, both in terms of infrastructure and trained manpower for mentoring," says Vinod Shastri, Head (CIE) Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Bennett University (BU) that has entrepreneurship courses and an oncampus incubator named Bennett Hatchery. "This support has helped student startups raise over Rs 20 crore in funding in just five years," Shastri informs.