Odisha to partner IIM-A, Techpedia for Entrepreneurship Development Policy

With an aim to promote a culture of entrepreneurship in the state, the Odisha government has decided to rope in Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad and Techpedia to finalise its entrepreneurship development policy. The proposed policy will include incentives for student start-ups with a special focus on engineering and management students.

A government official said both IIM Ahmedabad and Techpedia would offer intellectual inputs. They will also suggest changes to some existing provisions or suggest new provisions to the draft policy.

Under the policy, possibilities for Angel funds such start-ups would also be explored. It has been proposed that every college wold have an entrepreneurship development cell and basic infrastructure to activate entrepreneurship.

The entrepreneurship development policy is expected to be finalised in a month's time.

The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) department will identify MSMEs willing to accept students for summer internship projects. The faculty at technical institutions would be sensitised accordingly.

A fund is also likely to be created at the universities by pooling CSR (corporate social responsibility) fund of corporates to support the students at various stages of innovation and filing of patent applications.