KOCHI: Giving a big boost to enterprising youngsters, the Kerala Start-up Mission (KSUM), with the support of the State government, has come up with a scheme that offers ₹2 lakh each for developing 500 innovative ideas to the prototype stage.
Besides, another ₹10 lakh each will be provided to 100 select ideas for scaling up further and taking them to commercialisation. While many agencies offer funds for developing ideas already at the prototype stage, funding at the level of mere ideas is rather rare, KSUM sources said.
The ideas will be channelled to KSUM through the nodal officers of 193 Innovation Entrepreneurship Development Centres (IEDCs) functioning in colleges. The ideas selected after an initial vetting by KSUM will be pitched by students before an expert committee, which will eventually select the eligible ones for the ₹2 lakh funding. KSUM has introduced a concept called ‘Idea Day’ to pitch ideas before the committee comprising IT Secretary M. Sivasankar, KSUM Chief Executive Officer Saji Gopinath, International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS) director Jayasankar Prasad, and IITM-K faculty member Asharaf S.
As many as 19 out of the 150 ideas received by KSUM from IEDCs from across the State were pitched before the committee on the maiden Idea Day held at Technology Innovation Zone (TIZ) at Kalamassery on Saturday. Henceforth, Idea Day will be held on the first Saturday of every month at any of the KSUM offices.
The committee is likely to select the ideas eligible for funding out of the 19 in a week or two. Funds for the selected ideas will be credited to the accounts of the IEDCs concerned.
To develop their ideas into prototypes, the creative teams behind the chosen ideas will be given access to two fablabs set up at Technopark at Thiruvananthapuram and TIZ, besides 20 mini fablabs at IEDCs on campuses across the State.
Troubleshooters
If they hit technical hurdles stalling the development of ideas at any point, the 20 technology innovation fellows deployed by KSUM will come to their rescue. The young entrepreneurs will also be given legal support to help them file for IP to protect their ideas and expert mentoring.
