Aspiring entrepreneurs in India have something to rejoice, the Industries department of the Kerala Government has tied up with the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT), in order to offer 5,000 startup boxes in 2014 and 10,000 startup boxes in 2 years to aspiring entrepreneurs in the country. This move by the department is being considered as a preparation for the September 12, Kerala Entrepreneurship Day.
According to an Industries department official, the plan formulated by the state in the last Emerging Kerala summit aimed at an influx of innovative startup ventures in the next two years, but the plan needs to be implemented in the right spirit.
According to Hrishikesh Nair, who is the CEO at Technopark -Technology Business Incubator and Infopark’s Chief executive officer, the initial plan is distribute 10,000 startup boxes to the selected few in two years, which include the 5,000 startup boxes to be distributed this year. Of these 5,000 startup boxes, 2,500 will be procured soon so that they can be distributed by September 12. A startup box will have utilities like vouchers with bank accounts and high end tablets, computers. Each startup box is worth 2 Crores.
The department plans to set up two fabrication labs with the support of MIT. One fabrication lab will reportedly be set up in Start-up village in Kochi and the other one at Technopark- Technology Business Incubator in Thiruvananthapuram. In order to increase the entrepreneurship development in the state, there are plans to set up Startup Bootcamps in engineering colleges and other institutes. The Startup Bootcamps will have training programme led by mentor Kris GopalaKrishnan.
Ten selected student entrepreneurs from Kerala will be sent to the Silicon Valley every year as a part of the SV Square programme. The plan also includes distributing some 5000 Raspberry Pi’s to selected students studying in class 8th to 10th.
According to Aruna Sunderrajan, Managing Director at Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), all the aspiring entrepreneurs will be guided by mentors on how to prepare a project proposal for registering a startup. They will be also be taught about marketing and advertising at every other stage.
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