Title of the Practice

                  Enriching Lives through Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Objectives of the Practice

                  With a belief that innovation and entrepreneurship can be a key to fair and inclusive future, the college established Institution’s Innovation Council (IIC) as per the guidance of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India (GoI). The objectives of this practice are:
                        To develop a vibrant local ecosystem to incubate and promote innovative ideas.
                        To create entrepreneurship opportunities for students, faculty, and society.
                        To foster the start-ups by providing them with the assistance they require.
                        To organize periodic lectures/seminars, workshops, hands-on-training, and mentoring sessions.
                        To instil the spirit and passion of building own ambitious enterprises.
                        To convert innovation into commercialization.

The Context

                  Since innovations and entrepreneurship are essentially two sides of the same coin, they may both be characterised by their relationship. Innovative phenomena require some form of entrepreneurial behaviour and practices. A successful entrepreneur understands the importance of bringing novel ideas into practise. In this context, IIC of the college aspires to offer a comprehensive ecosystem that equips the next generation of thinkers to be design leaders who benefit both industries in general and society. The cell encourages students to analyse and resolve a real-world entrepreneurship issue in stipulated time. It works to offer the students the information they need while encouraging them to launch their start-ups.

              The IIC strives to provide its students with the resources they need to overcome market constraints, lack of mentorship, creative barriers, and economic challenges. By offering entrepreneurs top-notch sources and assistance, it aims to enrich lives of the students through innovation and entrepreneurship to make social transformation. Besides, this cell teaches the students about functions of entrepreneurship, which includes planning, starting, managing and running a business followed by risk taking, uncertainty bearing and innovative undertaking in the business.

The Practice

                  Starting an entrepreneurial venture is a difficult endeavour in today’s changing business environment scenario. It is also critical to identify the challenges in them. Considering this, IIC of the college conducts various activities to promote most engaging environment of innovation and entrepreneurship amongst its students and faculties by inviting experts and trainers from different business ventures.

                  The IIC is primarily concerned with developing a vibrant local innovation eco-system, establishing a start-up support mechanism in the institute and preparing the Institute for Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) Framework. The institution strives to create a functional eco-system for scouting ideas and pre-incubation of ideas and develop better cognitive abilities for the students.

                  The cell regularly conducts various innovations and entrepreneurship related activities as prescribed by the Central MoE’s Innovation Cell (MIC) in time bound fashion. It organises periodic workshops, seminars, lectures, and interactive sessions to create a mentor pool for student innovators.

                  The cell also organizes internal hackathons, where a call for invitation for innovative ideas and projects, which shortlisted based on the societal relevance and judged by jury members for evaluation. The ideas must be social relevant to the current business scenario, and this helps to solve social issues. The college provides all the resources and support to the students to complete the project successfully and the IIC acts as a bridge between the industry and the academia.

The following facilities are provided to convert ideas into products:
Providing the budding innovators with a range of services, that provides information on all aspects of enterprise and innovative business venture building.
Inviting well trained experts from industries of different kinds and related disciplines to inspire students to pursue entrepreneurship.
Suggesting and guiding the students in choosing their projects.
Scheduling frequent visits to the industry to become acquainted with people who are already succeeding as entrepreneurs in the business ventures.
Conducting internal hackathons to promote skill development and boosting the innovative culture; and
Identifying blooming entrepreneurs to share their success stories.

                  Since IIC is a component of the Ministry of Education, Government of India, the students from the college took part in hackathons at the national level and connect with notable academicians and businesspeople to develop their entrepreneurial talents. This makes the students more aware of the potential advantages of being a prospective entrepreneur and provides them with possibilities to adopt and equip an innovative culture.

Evidence of Success

                  The IIC 3.0 was established in the college on October 2021 and since its inception, it organised 78 fruitful activities in fulfilling the objectives of IIC in all the 4 quarters. These activities gave exposures and ample opportunities for students and staffs. The participants understood the importance of innovation, inculcating the culture of entrepreneurship skill and thus considering start-up as an alternative career option.

                  The college secured with 4 Star Rating out of 5 with the score of 82.32 out of 100 and reward points of 81.02 in the final assessment by MoE’s Innovation Cell (MIC) for the academic year 2020-2021.

                  A team of students namely Centroid and Verizone shortlisted to participate in the grand finale of the Smart India Hackathon 2022, the biggest national innovation contest for software edition. The team members of Centroid presented the idea of a Smart Blood Bank Repository held at the Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Aurangabad, Maharashtra and the members of Verizone presented the idea of Voice Delivery of Academic Records in the Talla Padmavathi College of Engineering, Warangal, Telangana.

                  A girl student from II M. Com established her start-up venture Aishwaryam Masala. Besides, six members of IIC completed Innovation Ambassador Training.

Problems Encountered and Resources Required

                  Students could not be able to build commercial product due to financial constraints.
                  Students must be supported by venture capital scheme.
                  Students need of mentorship to build the innovative business model.
                  Lack of experts in training innovative business venture.
                  Need of Entrepreneur Hub / Incubator / Centre for Innovation or a similar facility on campus designed to support student entrepreneurship activities.