Kerala is witnessing a Startup Revolution – Oommen Chandy

TechnoparkToday.com>> January 15, 2014:  As part of Government of Kerala’s plans to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship among the youth of the state, it hadbeen decided to set up Entrepreneurship Development Clubs in all the higher educational institutions across the state. Chief Minister Shri. Oomen Chandy announced this via Skype during the launch of Startup Boot Camp held today at Technopark Phase III while interacting with about 1900 students who participated from various institutions across the state. Minister for Industries and IT, Shri. P.K. Kunhalikutty and Minister for Education Shri. P.K. AdbuRabbwas also present at the launch.

Oommen Chandy in his inaugural speech on Skype said, “Kerala is witnessing a Startup Revolution and this is a beginning of a big change. Today Youngsters who were seeking jobs are aiming at becoming job creators. We are trying to create an ecosystem that will support in making their dreams a reality.” He called upon the government to change from being administrators to enablers.

IT Minister Shri P K Kunhalikutty in his address said, “It’s a rare view to see so many students together at one forum. For the Government, campus industry linkage is a long drawn dream which we hope to see realizing through this Entrepreneurship Development Clubs. Product companies are the need of the hour and we hope to see many startups creating innovative products not just in IT but also in other industry sectors.”

Education Minister Mr. Abdu Rabb, “It is not just enough to have just professional degrees but also have specializations especially if the youth are aiming at becoming entrepreneurs. Therefore the Education Department of Govt. of Kerala is working towards partnering universities of Kerala with Foreign Universities like Stanford, MIT so that students can also opt for elective learning of subjects of their choice along with the mainstream curriculum. We will ensure that such courses are also certified by the universities of the State.”

The Chief Minister in his Google hangout address to over 50 lakhs students on September 12^th had promised setting up entrepreneurship clubs in all colleges in Kerala for promoting youth entrepreneurship and leadership development. The initiative to set up the clubs has generated tremendous response from the colleges around the state and more than 300 colleges and over 1000 students have registered for this initiative.

Entrepreneurship Development Clubs are proposed to be established as not-for-profit societies. The clubs will be run completely by students, to give them hands-on experience of what entrepreneurship is, while still in college. These clubs will be responsible for promoting and coordinating all the entrepreneurial activities in their respective colleges with the nodal incubators in the state. Each of these clubs is proposed to be modeled in the form of a company, with the vision and strategic affairs of the club being taken care of by a CEO; the financial affairs looked after by a CFO, the technical side by a CTO, creative needs by a CCO, marketing and promotional aspects by a CMO and the operational aspects by a COO. All these posts will be manned by students. The innovative and entrepreneurial ideas that originate in each college can be routed to the nodal incubators in the state via these clubs for incubation and business mentoring if and when needed. The final structure and functioning of these Entrepreneurship Development Clubs will be decided after taking inputs from teachers and students on Jan 15^th. The clubs will have to be set up by February 15^th in the colleges and boot camps will be organized in each institutions to facilitate further activities.

Additionally it also planned to give the students associated with these clubs focused training on management, financial management, leadership training etc. in association with industry leaders and academicians in the country and the world.

The event comes as a part of series of initiatives announced by the Government of Kerala to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in the state. Last year, the Chief Minister had announced September 12^th as the State Entrepreneurship Day and decided to set aside 1% of the state budget every year to promote entrepreneurial activities among the youth of the state.The government also rolled out the Student Entrepreneurship Policy which gives attendance waiver of up to 20% and grace marks of up to 4% for college students involved in entrepreneurial activities in colleges. The government in association with Startup Village had also sent five young budding student entrepreneurs to the Silicon Valley as a part of the SVSquare Programme, to give the students international exposure.

Calicut University Vice Chancellor Abdul Salam, Dr. Jayalatha, Director of Technical Education was also present at the function.