Prof. Raj Shree Dhar
“Do not keep your dreams local, make them global. Remember this mantra- let’s Innovate for India, innovate from India.”- Prime Minister Narendra Modi
A few weeks ago, the Prime Minister declared January 16 as the National Start- up Day in an economy where start-ups are going to be the “backbone” of New India as also on this day, the scheme was launched in 2016. Start-up India is an initiative of the Government of India and the campaign was first announced by the PM during his speech on 15th August 2015. The action plan of this initiative mainly focuses on three areas: Handholding, Funding Support and Incentives.It aims to accelerate the spreading of the Start-up movement, from digital technology sector to a wide array of sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, social sector, healthcare, education, etc., and from existing tier 1 cities to tier 2 and tier 3 cities including semi-urban and rural areas.
A startup is a young company established by one or more entrepreneurs to create unique and irreplaceable products or services. It aims at bringing innovation and building ideas quickly. Tech businesses can receive financial support from investors and grow into international companies. Examples of such startups include Google, Uber, Facebook, and Twitter. These startups hire the best workers and search for investors to boost the development of their ideas and scale.
Small business startups are created by regular people and are self-funded. They grow at their own pace and usually have a good site but do not have an app. Grocery stores, hairdressers, bakers, and travel agents are the perfect examples.Big business startups include large companies that have a finite lifespan since customers’ preferences, technologies, and competitors change over time. That’s why businesses should be ready to adapt to new conditions. As a result, they design innovative products that can satisfy the needs of modern customers.
Lifestyle startups are created by the people who have hobbies and are eager to work on their passion. They can make a living by doing what they love. We can see a lot of examples of lifestyle startups. Let’s take dancers, for instance. They actively open online dance schools to teach children and adults to dance and earn money this way.
Buyable startups include the technology and software industry where some people design a startup from scratch to sell it to a bigger company later. Giants like Amazon and Uber buy small startups to develop them over time and receive benefits.Social startups exist despite the general belief that the main aim of all startups is to earn money. There are still companies designed to do good for other people, and they are called social startups. Examples include charities and non-profit organizations that exist, thanks to donations. For instance, Code.org, a non-profit organization, encourages school students in the US to learn computer science.
In today’s environment we have more start-ups and entrepreneurs than ever before and the movement is at the cusp of a revolution. However, many start-ups do not reach their full potential due to limited guidance and access. The Government of India has taken various measures to improve the ease of doing business and is also building an exciting and enabling environment for these Start-ups, with the launch of the “Start-up India” movement.
The institutions should use the global top 100 start-up ecosystems, as engines of job creation and economic growth, especially with the pandemic raging ruthlessly.The Global Start-up Ecosystem Index (GSEI) measures ecosystems based on three metrics, including the number of start-ups (quantity), their quality, and their business environment.The positive performance could be enhanced by the launch of Centers of Excellence in Mathematics, Science, Technology, and Innovation.
Multi-Disciplinary Education and Research Universities (MERUs)established under NEP 2020 can include innovative hubs where innovations can be nurtured, and the research from these institutions can influence and improve industry practice.In developed economies, universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, power their local tech ecosystem by supplying knowledge and talent to meet business needs.Such universities provide support for their local start-up ecosystems by producing research, knowledge, and talents that are influenced by the needs of society.
Also,the proliferation of such universities can lead to the development of intellectual property policies that would enable them to co-own inventions and share royalties with inventors that use their facilities or resources.In the highly turbulent and unpredictable financial environment resulting from COVID-19, the appropriate response of universities to support start-ups is to become entrepreneurial universities, where they act as knowledge-producers and disseminating institutions, as well as a driving force for economic growth, employment creation, and competitiveness.The proposed entrepreneurial university must move to cure itself from the isolation syndrome of traditional universities, and start providing a helping hand to local and regional start-ups through tech-specific initiatives such as incubators and accelerators, as well as practical entrepreneurship courses within the curriculum.
The university-start-up alliance could promote cooperation with regard to research, education and innovation, as well as boost knowledge and technology transfer. It could also act as a hub for connecting stakeholders such as entrepreneurs, investors, regulators, and corporate institutions, along with start-ups, tech parks, science and mathematics cities, business incubators.
Such centers of excellence are the instruments for advancing knowledge and science-backed innovations to support accelerated implementation and aim to leverage the research and science capabilities. The COVID-19 crisis has shown that mathematics, science, technology, and innovation play a vital role in fighting the devastating impact of the pandemic. It needs to look inwards to develop, strengthen, and upscale innovations that could help fight the pandemic and build greater resilience in the post-COVID era.
The “Start-up Hub” will be a key stakeholder in this vibrant ecosystem and will work in a hub and spoke model and collaborate with Central and State Governments, angel networks, banks, incubators, legal partners, consultants, universities, and R&D institutions and assist start-ups through their lifecycle with specific focus on important aspects like obtaining financing, feasibility testing, business structuring advisory, enhancement of marketing skills, technology commercialization, and management evaluation. It will organize mentorship programs in collaboration with Government organizations, incubation centers, educational institutions, and private organizations who aspire to foster innovation. Alliances with the industry and the private sector shall equip students with an entrepreneurial mindset and support them to launch start-ups and nurture students at all universities with the option of presenting a start-up that they have launched.The students will be taught how to present start-ups as their final projects, with faculty receiving guidance on how to supervise these activities. The educational technologies are changing, as is the labour market, offering “promising new professions” to changing generations of students. It would be appropriate for students from different departments to work together to establish start-ups, which means that before long we may see interdisciplinary start-up projects defended by groups of students.
To ensure professional management of Government sponsored or funded incubators, the Government has proposed to create a policy framework for setting-up of incubators across the country in public private partnership. This will promote entrepreneurs to experiment with new and innovative ideas, without having the fear of facing a complex and long-drawn exit process where their capital remains interminably stuck.
For a new idea to become a successful, commercial venture, adequate support and mentoring at various stages of the business lifecycle are required. Incubators play an important role in identifying early-stagestart-ups and supporting them across various phases of their lifecycle. In order to build an effective start-up ecosystem, it is imperative that world class incubatorsadopting leading industry practices are setup. Besides attracting high-achieving individuals, universities house students from multidisciplinary backgrounds and provide a means for such individuals to easily interact with each other due to proximity. Successful early-stage startups are founded by a well-rounded team of individuals from diverse backgrounds. Most accelerators want to see highly-motivated and hard-working startup teams that bring a diversity of skills, knowledge and experience and this can be achieved when university students have more room to experiment and navigate both the successes and failures of starting an early stage company. Some of the biggest disruptions in the tech industry were founded by college-aged entrepreneurs. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook while he was at Harvard and Michael Dell founded Dell Computers at The University of Texas at Austin.
Data indicates that more college-aged entrepreneurs are starting companies. In 2011, 16 percent of graduates went on to start companies after graduation compared to 5 percent in the early 1990s, according the Association of Business Schools. We have seen a growing number of colleges direct more attention to entrepreneurial studies, but there can still be much improvement.
The Government is actively working to boost the potential of our young graduates to invest in startups. In 2021, Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) was launched aiming at the development of prototypes, their trials and market entry, and commercialization. The scheme got an allocation of 283.5 crores in the 2022-23 Budget, much higher than the 100 crores in Revised Estimate. The monetary support offered by the Government along with the focus on promotion of innovation shall take India forward as an ecosystem most conducive to the burgeoning demand for budding entrepreneurs.
(The author is Principal, Govt. Degree college, Jindrah, J&K.)
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