The first phase of the Students Amenities-cum-Incubation Centre set up by the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, is slated to begin operations on October 27.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the centre at a function to be presided over by Higher Education Minister K.T. Jaleel. The first phase of the facility, which intends to promote start-up initiatives and student amenities, was initiated under the Rashtriya Uchtar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) project of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Of the ₹4.53 crore expended on the project, about 40% of the cost was borne by the State government. The building, having a built-up area of 14,131 sq.ft, was constructed by the Kerala Electrical and Allied Engineering Company Limited (KEL).
According to varsity officials, the predominant objective of the centre is to develop a business innovation ecosystem consisting several incubators. The student entrepreneurs will be also offered training programmes in collaboration with University of Wisconsin, USA, and Fortune 500 companies, and other start-up support services.
The incubators, which will come up in this building under the second phase of RUSA scheme, are Nanotechnology incubator and App Factory, and digital services incubator. It will provide students and young innovators, amenities for establishing start-ups.
The App Factory and digital services incubator at the centre will facilitate common amenities for start-ups in areas like Mobile and Web App Development, Artificial Intelligence and Bots, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), Single Page Application, Motion UI, Block chain Technology, Internet of Things, and Business Analytics. It will also have Scientific Core Cloud Computing facilities, which will empower small scale industries, universities and colleges in modelling and computation to boost their research and reduce the time taken to develop it into products.
The Digital Learning and Empowering Studio at the Centre will house a wide range of facilities, which will promote technology-oriented teaching, learning and content creation services.
The Nanotechnology incubator will house facilities for Nano cellulose research and pilot plant for production of Micro cellulose (MCC). It will also have facilities for development of Nano cellulose-modified value-added products in the areas of food supplements and nutraceuticals.
