SIIC Nurturing Innovation!

Incubation centres often are like nests that transform caterpillars into butterflies. SIIC is one such incubation centre, which fosters several innovative projects, nurturing start-ups till they learn to fly and are ready to flourish on their own.
The SIDBI Innovation and Incubation Centre (SIIC) was established at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK), in collaboration with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), in 2000. Its mission is to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. One of the major objectives of the centre is to promote technology-based start-ups by providing them the necessary infrastructure and mentoring.

Best Microsoft MCTS Training – Microsoft MCITP Certification at Certkingdom.com

 

SIDBI provides the corpus funding to the SIIC, wherein the interest on the principal amount is used for re-funding. The other funding bodies are the government of UP and IITK.

Initial hiccups
Entrepreneurship and incubation were relatively new concepts in India when SIIC was being conceptualised. These occurred at very few places and at a very low scale. SIIC was an initiative of Prof S G Dhande, director, IITK, who was then the dean, R&D. He visualised the need for such an organisation and was instrumental in implementing the concept of incubation at IITK.

“Initially, the going was tough as students were not much interested in entrepreneurship or incubation, as lucrative jobs enticed them more. The first to take advantage of the facility was a group of students who dropped out of college. They joined SIIC in 2001, but quit after three years of graduation from SIIC, due to personality problems between the promoters. A rigorous entrepreneurship awareness campaign was launched on the campus, which included talks by successful alumni entrepreneurs, business plan competitions, innovative idea contests and contests among school children,” says B.V. Phani, coordinator, SIIC.

As a result, the number of incubating companies went up and currently there are 10 incubatees with SIIC (full capacity), while another five have already graduated from SIIC. Currently, SIIC has a waiting list of companies, which have already got approval for admission but are awaiting space allocation. It has also launched new initiatives like the formulation of the faculty entrepreneurship policy of the institute, fund raising from various sources, national and international collaborations, technology commercialisation, and creating a student e-cell. The faculty entrepreneurship policy enables faculty members to start a company of their own without quitting their current jobs. The policy has been implemented very recently and there are already 4-5 projects that are being reviewed by the institute. The student e-cell is a programme that involves counselling, workshops and competitions, organised on a weekly/monthly basis to encourage students to innovate.

Getting in: The selection criteria
Hexo Labs, Simmortal, EI Devices, Aurora Integrated Systems, and IAITO Infotech are some of the firms that are currently being incubated at SIIC. The criteria for selecting these projects were: value addition, enrichment of state-of-the-art technology, import substitution and scalability of the market.

Generally, a committee comprising experts from the relevant field evaluates a project and the business plan submitted by a company on the following criteria:
* The need/relevance of the proposal
* Technological feasibility of the project
* The innovativeness of the technology
* Applicability of the project in the industry
* Commercial viability
* Team strength

A firm situated at a remote place too can be incubated at SIIC. The firm can approach SIIC through its website: https://www.iitk.ac.in/siic/ and apply for virtual incubation, which means the firm need not be located at IITK but can have access to all the facilities on campus as and when it needs them. SIIC does not charge any initial fees but holds 1 per cent equity in the company. The selection criteria for such firms are the same as mentioned above.