Campus entrepreneurship is spreading across higher education. In 2021-22, more than 6,400 Institutions’ Innovation Councils were active across colleges and universities, recording 63,288 innovation and entrepreneurship activities. At the same time, a Deloitte study found that 62% of Gen Z respondents from India had an additional source of paid work, often through social media and online selling.
On campuses, this shows up as student-run enterprises built around personal skills, small services, and low-cost online businesses, with the common thread being less glamour than grind.
Nura Fathima, now 19, began her baking venture in Class 8 and soon found that paid orders brought a lot of pressure. “It started as curiosity, but once people began ordering, I had to think about pricing, timing, packaging, and delivery. It stopped feeling casual very quickly,” she says.
That pattern runs through other student ventures too, especially when college schedules and client expectations collide. Preksha Agarwal, a third-year BCom student and founder of Minaraa, a wellness venture, says the real test is maintaining reliability as a brand alongside everyday college work. “If schedules clash or you are not prepared, people notice. I learnt very early that discipline is what keeps a service alive,” she says.
Tiya Agarwal, another third-year BCom student who runs a personalised gifting brand, says the work teaches students how professional life actually functions. “You are dealing with clients, deadlines, content, pricing, and follow-ups,” she says, emphasising that the experience teaches professionalism in a way classrooms usually do not.