Innovation & entrepreneurship in engineering curriculum

Thanks to ChatGPT and the possibility of a million jobs disappearing in the next decade in customer service and the service industry, there is a discussion about entrepreneurship at engineering colleges in India. The Ministry of Human Resource Development’s Institute Innovation Council (IIC) has recognized this and initiated activities through AICTE & UGC affiliated institutions. It is clear in the minds of Indian administrators that India needs to move from a “service-based economy” to an “innovation-driven economy”. The perks in the Indian union budget for startups and sustainable entrepreneurship are visible.

The importance of entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship on paper is when an inventor pursues a problem, comes up with a bunch of ideas, builds a prototype to test with potential users, and if positive, launches the product for a larger group.

If this process is as straightforward as it is defined, why has the world only seen a 1 per cent success rate of entrepreneurs in the past century? The entrepreneurial mindset is a skill that can be instilled in students and nurtured from school days itself, as western countries have been doing for the past century.

The time has come to say goodbye to colonial-era mindsets and aspire to be job creators rather than job seekers. India should have seen the bigger picture when entering the World Trade Organization (WTO) and should at least now wake up to the fact that we cannot be a “consumption country” forever.

Recognising problems as opportunities

An ordinary individual sees problems, but an entrepreneur sees an opportunity in them as well. India is the most populous country and has enough problem statements to satisfy the bubbling urge of Indian youth. When the whole world is looking to launch their products in India, is it not time for Indian entrepreneurs to view and value the size of the Indian market? Sustainability, affordable housing, packaged food, urban agriculture, the environment, industrial efficiency, smart education, efficient healthcare, tourism, culinary & cuisine, recreation, fitness, etc. offer enough problem statements that could lead to billion-dollar enterprises.

Opportunity identification

ChatGPT is probably a good thing for India and has clearly awakened and laid a path for how service industry jobs can diminish in the next decade. India now has an opportunity to build a platform for sustainable entrepreneurship, go beyond Western-induced educational practices, and convince Indian youth to think local, invent local, and launch local.

A market survey has indicated that the Indian beetle pan market is worth Rs 65,000 crore, and this unorganized segment, which is present in each and every corner of the street, has been employing a few million stakeholders. Street vendors, farming produce middlemen, expensive labor, local delicacies as packaged food for the Indian diaspora, affordable mass transportation & communication, etc., are opportunities, and probably sustainable jugaad is what India needs.

Driving

business growth

The West can never match India’s manpower strength. From defense to aeronautics, smart cities to consumer electronics, manufacturing to customer care, education to transportation, agriculture to communication, renewables to healthcare, and everything in between, all need to be reimagined and reinvented based on AI. AI is not inherently bad, but it does seem to threaten the established Western dominance, and in a way, democratize the power that is currently vested in a few countries.

Opportunities always come with threats, such as cyber security, data security, corporate integrity, national security, terrorism, poverty and hunger, mass employment, gender issues, newer viruses, and so on. All of these could have unpredictable outcomes. India is entering an exciting phase of global dominance through a sudden spurt in entrepreneurship, and the Indian technical institutions have a responsibility to ensure that Indian global dominance is achieved.

Business topics in engineering

Robotics and autonomous manufacturing practices have been evolving for the past century, but the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) has made the past century’s advances obsolete.

This creates an adoption of AI & ML for every scientific and technical domain amenable to disruption, and this niche, yet huge opportunities, are at the doorstep of Indian entrepreneurs.

Indian entrepreneurs should realize that literally any problem statement in India has 1.5 billion customers, and grabbing a fraction of it is also a multi-billion-dollar opportunity.

(The author a Professor at School of Computer Science & Engineering at RV University)