By Mehboob Inamdar
Aurangabad, Oct 5:
Startups play a dominant role in economic growth as they generate jobs, which means lesser unemployment rates and less unemployment means an economy that is refining and improving.
Startups need inspiration and mentoring so that they can have a clear business plan and meet its objectives. The Incubation Centre of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (BAMU) started nurturing and mentoring start-ups to turn their innovative business ideas into reality and to become scalable and sustainable enterprises.
The centre was launched in the year 2020 after receiving funds from National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog under Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Maharashtra State Innovation Society under its Department of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
It was named as Atal Incubation Centre (AIC). The building was named Bajaj Incubation Centre since Bajaj Company provided funds for the construction of its building under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
The mentoring commenced at AIC in the first quarter of the current year because of Covid situation. A total of 24 young entrepreneurs registered with AIC for mentoring and guidance. They have launched their start-ups and will get mentorship from AIC next two years.
Talking to this newspaper, chief executive officer (CEO) of AIC Amit Ranjan said that 24 start-ups would get continuous mentoring and guidance for three years until they can sustain themselves. The start-ups were launched in health care, agriculture, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
He said this is the only incubation centre of Marathwada and Khandesh region youths for experimenting on their ideas. The CEO said that Vice-chancellor Dr Pramod Yeole gave impetus to the centre by starting mentoring and developing infrastructure.
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“A total of 24 new youths will be registered every year. A total of 24 startups registered during the current year. Each start-up will get mentoring for three years. We often give training through our external subject experts from industries and academic backgrounds. The AIC works in the stipulated guidelines given by NITI Aayog and well-established guidelines of the university to empower our students to become startups,” Ranjan added.
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Some of the start-ups told this newspaper that they got encouragement to turn their ideas into reality through AIC. “Its time to be job-givers than job seekers. Starting a business is not an easy task. It requires support and guidance from the right persons. This is what we are getting from the centre,” they added.
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The objective of AIC is to empower youths to become job givers than job seekers by founding innovative societal problem-solving ventures. Youths from any background with innovative thinking and approach to solving a societal problem can enrol as startups in our Cohort.