Start-ups seems to be the word of the season, with everyone from educational institutions to the government investing their time and money. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently announced a Rs.10,000 crore fund and tax exemption for start-ups in the country, students and young entrepreneurs are coming up with creative and resourceful ideas.
One such assimilation of ideas was witnessed at the annual management festival of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) at Delhi University, where 10 best start-up ideas from the country made a business pitch.
From ideas like reviving puppetry by training conventional puppetry artists and making them a tool of spreading awareness about social issues to aggregating street food vendors for supplying hygienic street-food at doorsteps and serious causes like constructing affordable homes for the economically weaker section were showcased at the event, Launchpad.
Students from SRCC have created a start-up venture Kathputli Marketing LLP, through which they are trying to revive the culture of puppetry.
They work along with puppeteers and teach them innovative techniques. They have tied up with organisations like Delhi Metro and some schools, and have held some shows to spread awareness about various social issues.
Synergy, a start-up by the students of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, aims to build affordable houses for people from the economically-weaker sections. The team utilises re-usable material to make houses that can be built within six hours and have a long durability.
One of the founders of Synergy said: “We use materials that are re-usable and can last for a much longer than bricks. If we build houses with this material, there will be lesser possibility of the house getting damaged soon. We are initially selling this idea to builders to build houses for their construction workers. Using our material, they can build and re-build houses five times over because the material is re-usable.”
The other start-up which means serious business is Boon, a venture by students from IP University, that aims to help people with disabilities in communicating with people.
Siddhartha Batra, the founder of Boon, said: “We have developed a device that can be worn on the eyes. It will use the radiation from the eyes to type letters on a keyboard to send messages to people. This will be useful for people who have speech impairment, paralysis or any other difficulty in communication.”
There will be a session with the investors on Friday, where the best start-up will receive funding of Rs.20 lakh. “The college received 1,000 entries from various start-ups this year. We have chosen the 10 best start-ups in front of the investors,” said Vikram Aditya Sahu, a student of the SRCC, who is also one of the event heads.
