BITS Pilani to allow students, faculty to take a year off to establish start-ups

Students can earn credits, faculty can obtain stake or receive cash compensation

File image: Handout

Students as well as faculty at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani will be now be able to take up to a year off in order to join a business or establish a start-up as part of the premier university’s new policy to promote innovation and start-ups.

The Rajasthan-based deemed university will also allow its students to earn course credits for working on innovative prototypes or business models. If such students win prizes at State or national-level competitions, they will also be eligible for up to 2% grace marks in that particular semester as an incentive to inculcate entrepreneurship. They can also opt for start-up in place of their mini or major project, seminars or summer trainings, according to the draft policy document titled “Innovation and Startup Policy 2022”, which BITS Pilani circulated to its alumni network and shared with the Ministry of Education.

The institute will also provide accommodation within its campuses at a subsidised cost for budding entrepreneurs.

The policy says that students can establish a start-up either independently or jointly with faculty, and those showing promise can be provided pre-incubation support as well as help in incorporating the start-up and seeking seed funding.

Faculty members too can be involved in start-up on full-time basis by availing either a sabbatical or extraordinary leave or earned leave for a maximum period of one year in return for monetary compensation or by obtaining shares in the enterprise. They will also have the option of engaging, on part-time basis or solely through capital investment in return for shares, where they don’t provide any mentorship or assume a managerial role. Non-teaching staff are also permitted to be involved in start-ups, but only through capital investment with no other managerial, technical or mentorship role.

Alumni of BITS already have a dozen unicorns to their name, and the policy aims to provide further momentum to that. The institute will also set aside 1% of its total annual budget as an ‘Innovation Fund’, apart from raising funds from government sources such as the Department of Science and Technology, the Technology Development Board, and the All India Council for Technical Education. It also plans to approach private and corporate sectors for raising Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds.