Objective of the session - . The sole purpose of a start-up incubator is to help entrepreneurs grow their business. The session focused on the incubators support available for the Entrepreneurs.
Jagan Institute of Management Studies in association with IGNOU - IIC organized an Online Session on Exposure to the Incubators in India and their Role in Startups Support” on (30th May, 2022) 11a.m for the students and faculty members. The program commenced with the welcome of Dr. Sujata Santosh (Assistant Director, NCIDE, IGNOU).
The session commenced with the honourable host Ms.Moumita Das (Assistant Professor, IGNOU) by extending a warm welcome to everyone and introducing the keynote speakers for the day: Dr. Sujata Santosh and Dr. O.P. Sharma (Director, NCIDE, IGNOU).
Dr. Sharma reflected on the essence of IIC by talking about the objective, the purpose was deliberated while laying the foundation of the organization i.e. improving accessibility to and spreading adequate awareness about the incubator system that has been brought to life by various initiatives by the Government of India to lend a helping hand to all the aspiring entrepreneurs out there.
Then our second keynote speaker Dr. Sujata Santosh started with her presentation based on the exposure to the Incubators in India and their role in start-ups support. In her elaborate, insightful, and interactive presentation, she managed to shed some light upon the following domains:
What is a Business Incubator- a team or platform of like-minded individuals who possess professional knowledge of the business world who tend to come together to help start-ups and other small businesses nurture from a mere idea to a financially, economically, and technologically feasible business venture.
She also talked about how business incubators were developed from focusing on providing infrastructure facilities back in the 1950s to the contemporary world where they are providing all sorts of services, including networking opportunities and better access to technological, professional, and financial assistance from the brightest minds of the world and how India became a start-ups hub possessing a pool of 50,000 start-ups as of 2018 and the numbers have been rising incessantly since then.
Dr. Sujata also spoke about how business incubators can help a business develop a Minimum Viable Product and make an organization ready to bring their product into the market and how they dwell on providing a wider business environment to start- ups apart from other perks, such as finances and sustainability of the business.
Since, talking about the business incubators wouldn’t be impact until and unless entrepreneurs know how and where to find such incubators; she reflected upon the types of incubators working in a myriad of sectors, including Start-up India, T-Hub, IIMA’s Centre for Innovation Inclusion and Entrepreneurship ,Khosla Labs and SAP Labs India,the application process of business incubators, how to carve out an effective application, in addition to how to choose the impeccable business incubator for your start up.
She also discussed the major characteristics of a start-up accelerator and how they focus on solving a problem that a business might be facing and help it become more sustainable, scalable, and gain better traction for their products.
The session then concluded with an interactive Question and Answer Session and a live, informative demonstration of the website of Start-up India.
It was truly an immersive experience for every person who has a problem in mind and has a strong idea in mind with an unflinching will to solve it.
Learning from the session - Business incubators support the development of start-ups by providing them with advisory and administrative support services