The Startup Village ‘kid’ is now a year old. The business incubator’s logo, of a child hopping several steps at a time, probably best represents a cultural shift from rote-learning and textbook curriculum.
On Wednesday morning, on the premises of the brand new Technopark Phase III, over 1,800 students from across the State were given a preview of ‘startup boot camps’ that will be introduced in all colleges.
These entrepreneurship development clubs will be formalised through a government circular that will recognise them as registered societies within colleges. It will be run entirely by students who will route innovative ideas generated in their college to the nodal incubation centres in the State such as the Technology Business Centre in Technopark and Startup Village in Kochi.
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Chief Minister Oommen Chandy spoke to students using Google Hangout. He said that the education system was flawed — rigid in its approach and hardly student-friendly. This would change for the better, he promised, and world-class policies and infrastructure would be introduced to ensure that students in Kerala were on par with those in other countries.
“We need to remind ourselves that we are not living in the 19 century,” he told teachers and principals attending the event from around 150 institutions. “Seize this opportunity,” he told the students.
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Industries and IT Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty said that through boot camps the ideal of campus-industry linkages would finally materialise.
CEO of Startup Village Sijo Kurivilla George and co-founder and CEO of MobME Wireless Limited Sanjay Vijayakumar spoke to students about their experiences. Statements such as ‘Imagine working in an environment where furniture constituted of beanbags’ were much appreciated by the audience. They spoke of plans such as forging a partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology to set up Fab Labs.
Mr. Kunhalikutty encouraged students to find innovative solutions for issues in non-IT sectors as well.
He said the government would send a group of students every year to Silicon Valley in the U.S. to give them more exposure. Five entrepreneurs were sent last year.
Education Minister P.K. Abdu Rabb and IT Secretary P.H. Kurien were present.