ISB to help 1,000 students establish tech start-ups

Hyderabad: Indian School of Business, which charges a premium for its courses, is going to do something different. It is going to help 1,000 engineering students establish start-ups, realising their entrepreneurial dreams.

Those who want to become entrepreneurs can opt for an elective on entrepreneurship in the first semester of their third year.

In association with the IT Ministry of Andhra Pradesh Government, ISB will select 50 students each from 10 top engineering colleges. ISB is in the process of preparing a curriculum for the elective, which will be introduced from the second half of next calendar year.

“We will pick them in the third year. And for the next four semesters, they will undergo training on various aspects of starting an enterprise. Right from turning a business idea into a business project to execute it,” Aruna Reddy of ISB’s Entrepreneurship Centre, directing the initiative, told Business Line.

At the end of the course, short-listed students would be invited present their project ideas to a gathering of PEs and angel investors at the ISB.

From the Government side, Jawahar Knowledge Centres is funding and coordinating the programme. IIIT (Hyderabad), BITS (Hyderabad), NIT (Warangal) and Srinidhi institute would act as hub centres. Faculty from these centres would get training from the business school. They, in turn, would train the faculty of the other colleges that will join the course.

The State Government would collect Rs 2,000 from each student taking up the entrepreneurship course. “Instead of ending up as job seekers, they can employ people. We will connect them with the seed funding agencies and private equity players,” Sanjay Jaju, Principal Secretary (IT and Communication, Govt of AP), said.

Amarnath Reddy Atmakuri, Chief Executive Officer of JKC, said only a fraction of the two lakh employees found jobs, leaving a large number of students jobless. “But if you help them turn entrepreneurs, they can provide jobs instead,” he said.

Though they are tying up with only 10 engineering colleges in the initiative, the Government is planning to bring in more colleges under the purview of the programme.

“The students will have both theoretical and practical classes. They will get to listen to experts once in six months. We need to improve product ecosystem in order to create more jobs,” Ponnala Lakshmaiah, State Minister for IT, said.