Red hot startup labs

1. Red-Hot Startup Labs

2. Contd…
Things started moving about 10 years ago, when the Department of Electronics and
Information Technology provided up to `2 crore to academic institutions to
promote entrepreneurship. Some of the big universities were already in the game
on their own. At IIT Madras, electrical engineering professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala
had set up Midas in the late 1990s to commercialise wireless telephony and
broadband. At the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, four professors had
started two companies: Strand Genomics and PicoPeta Simputers. But until the
government grants came in, academics were on their own.There was no help from
the institutions. The grant, called Technology Incubation and Development of
Entrepreneurs (TIDE), made it possible to incubate companies within academic
institutions. Incubation centres provided office space, mentorship and some seed
money for professors wanting to start companies. Professors were allowed to
spend a day in the week working for their companies. IISc, which changed its rules
in 2000 to allow faculty to launch companies, started promoting entrepreneurship
in a big way. Now seven companies are incubated there, through the Society of
Innovation and Development (SID), a non-profit society promoted by IISc.

3. Contd…
It had taken some time for SID to realise that entrepreneurship was a bit different
from research. “We realised after some time that a company has to function like a
company,“ says CS Murali, chairman of the entrepreneurship cell of SID. It
promoted a Section 25 company that could earn profits to be reinvested through
equity in companies. SID also has started raising money from private sources, as
contribution to en trepreneurship counts as a Corporate Social Activity. SID has
seven academic startups in its premises now.
Once it made up its mind, IISc has had a smooth ride in mak ing the rules for en
trepreneurship. The institution can hold equity in exchange for knowledge, some of
thing the Council Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has still not implemented.
CSIR ing had started encourag entrepreneurship in the mid-1990s, when RA
Mashelkar was director-general.
It floated a scheme where a scientist could go out and start a com pany, and come
back within three years if the venture failed.

4. Contd…
There were no takers for this scheme, which was closed after five years.
Now entrepreneur ship is strong in CSIR, but it is yet to set up systems that
can hold equity in companies promoted by its employees. Other institutions
however, have reacted quickly to the demands of entrepreneurship. The
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) formed
its rules soon after a faculty request to do so. “JNCASR took a liberal view of
entrepreneurship,“ says Vijay Chandru, chairman of Strand Life Sciences and
a member of the panel that formed the rules at JNCASR.
Many major academic institutions are now well on their way to assisting
faculty wanting to set up companies. “Academic startups produce
breakthroughs,“ says Sharad Sharma, angel investor in Bengaluru and
founder of the software product think tank iSpirit.Would they be among the
billion dollar companies of the future? A few academic entrepreneurs think
so.

5. For details and bookings contact:-
Parveen Kumar Chadha… THINK TANK
(Founder and C.E.O of Saxbee Consultants & Other-Mother
marketingandcommunicationconsultants.com)
Email :-saxbeeconsultants@gmail.com
Mobile No. +91-9818308353
Address:-First Floor G-20(A), Kirti Nagar, New Delhi India Postal Code-110015