BHUBANESWAR: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) recently launched innovation clubs on its four leading campuses to support, handhold, incubate and mentor start-ups in the State. The innovation clubs will help realise the State Government’s vision to build an enabling environment and supporting eco-system that can facilitate at least 1,000 start-ups in the next five years.
The institutes where the clubs will be housed include Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), National Institute of Science and Technology, Silicon Institute of Technology and Temple City Institute of Technology and Engineering. “We not only intend to create a strong and enduring culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, incubate start-ups and connect them with funding agencies, we will also help start-ups get funding for their projects,” said JB Pany, Chairman of CII Eastern Region Startup and Innovation Taskforce.
The Confederation runs 20 such clubs elsewhere in the eastern region. This initiative has already resulted in the creation of a number of student-driven start-ups.
Co-chairman Dipankar Chakrabarti said once the innovation clubs gather momentum in the State, more institutes will encourage their students to take advantage of the initiative. CII will serve as a bridge between academic institutes and industries, connecting future innovators, start-ups with funding agencies and corporates. While the clubs will involve top academics, scientists and industry members, who as mentors will interact with students and help them to come up with projects, the CII mentors will teach them about revenue models, intellectual property and how to structure and pitch, he added.
“The launch of innovation clubs here testifies to the State’s growing stature as a knowledge hub and potential centre of start-ups,” Pany said and added that the target was to help students of engineering and management institutes set up companies of their own.