Campus startups: New way to become a successful entrepreneur

Starting a business can be difficult and discouraging, especially if you don't have any experience or know where to start. Sometimes it can even feel like the deck is stacked against you because of your age, lack of experience, and what other people think about your entrepreneurial ambitions. No matter how tough the process may be, keep at it – the rewards make the journey worth it in the end. If you want to be more successful as an entrepreneur and succeed at your startup, then campus startups are the best way to become a successful entrepreneur!

Why campuses are ideal for starting your business

7 of the most successful student businesses in the world like Google, Facebook, Time Magazine, Snapchat, Reddit, FedEx, WordPress started at university or campus. The start-up world has been booming in recent years in India, and it's no surprise that college campuses are being targeted as the next big thing in business. Because of all the positive attributes college campuses possess, there's no wonder why entrepreneurs are flocking to them in hopes of reaching their full potential and making tons of money by using the resources that campus life has to offer, such as entrepreneurs in residence, incubators, co-working spaces and more. Luckily, you don't have to be enrolled in college to benefit from all these perks!

Indian government boosts tech startup ecosystem with new budget for business incubators

The Indian government has announced plans to boost its technology startup ecosystem by funding the creation of business incubators and promoting education in tech at universities, according to an official statement has already issued on public platform. The Ministry of Human Resource Development will set aside $730 million (Rs5.5 billion) over the next three years to support these efforts, while India's Department of Science and Technology will spend $184 million (Rs1 billion) over the same period on research grants and creating new technology parks, TBIs, CoEs etc.

Jobs creation rate is too low in India

A lot of people are worried about India's jobs problem because the country's current annual rate of employment growth is just 1.1 per cent, much lower than the rate before the global financial crisis hit in 2008 (2.6% per year). While there are several explanations for this slow down, one key reason why so few new jobs are being created in the country is because many small businesses are unable to grow and hire more people, resulting in fewer job opportunities being created overall. It's becoming harder and harder to run a small business in India, and this could result in less job creation as well as slower overall economic growth over time.

Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) may solve India's job creation problem?

The answer is big yes. A technological business incubator is an organization that helps new businesses get started by providing them with space and resources such as funding and mentorships. After decades of stagnant economic growth, the past few years have seen India's economy surge ahead at almost 8% annually. However, this rapid expansion has raised concerns about how to create jobs at the same pace as the country's overall economy. Technology incubators may just be one solution to this problem. Although they've been around in India since 2006, these centers of technology innovation only recently started to gain traction, and they are already making waves across the country and abroad.

Government of India is also encouraging with full force to All IITs, NITs, government institutions and private institutions those have good NIRF ranking to open TBIs in their campuses, for nurturing ideas and innovations (knowledge-based and technology-driven) of the students into successful start-ups. They are also providing good funds to all above mentioned institutions through different schemes like NIDHI-TBIs, STEP-TBIs. Government is also providing Seed money to the entrepreneurs for making proof of concept and prototype development through various schemes like Start-up India Seed Fund Scheme, Seed Support Scheme by Department of Science & Technology etc.

Technology incubators are helping students become successful entrepreneurs by giving them access to resources, mentors, workspace, fundraising assistance/seed fund support, legal and regulatory compliance support, market assistance, comprehensive business training programme, networking assistance (to connect best possible angel investors & VCs), early-stage customer acquisition, accounting/financial management access etc. Start-up culture can create many successful entrepreneurs and one successful entrepreneur can generate many jobs.

(The author is technical councelor and columnist for various national newspapers. Presently, he is working with CoreEL Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Banglore as program coordinator and handling project Siemens Centre of Excellence as Centre Coordinator

at NIT Kurukshetra)