And now government gears up for the MIGHTY TASK…  IN CONVERSATION WITH H.K.Mittal, Advisor and Head of National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board

Economics and Politics go hand in hand, more so, when the costs of keeping manpower idle is very high. Having nurtured Innovation and Entrepreneurship spirit in India since 1982, the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), is forging ahead to facilitate public-private-partnership through industries and academicians. Set up under the aegis of the Department of Science and Technology, the board acts as mentor conducting multiple training and incubation programs for ambitious professionals and students across campuses in solving real life problems, increasing opportunities of self-employment and hence generating multiple employments.

 But the larger issue still remains if the bottom of the pyramid is able to reap the benefit of this initiative or no, for this very bottom lie on the top when talking of Innovation.

While IN CONVERSATION WITH Why?Newton, Harkesh Kumar Mittal, the Advisor and Head of NSTEDB, reflects on the journey of incubating 15 strong companies to realizing the dream of making Entrepreneurship an alternate career option among youth today.

WN: Being an institutional mechanism, how NSTEDB identifies the potential candidates for training and incubation?

Mr. Mittal: First step is always to create awareness about entrepreneurship and develop a think tank. In this regards, we conduct Entrepreneurship Awareness Camps (EAC) with final year and pre-final year students in selected colleges mainly. Through more than 500 camps we identify ambitious and passionate individuals. We then mentor them by instilling enterprising skills from conceptualization to planning, promoting and launching the economic model of idea. This is accomplished though Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) and Technology Based EDP; that are highly focused programs. We create batches of 25 candidates with varied technology interests like IT, Biotechnology, Electronics and Communication, Sports and Goods and other areas. Idea is to develop a management perspective among technically sound candidates.  Individuals from different background other than science can also participate in programs, although NSTEDB works with technology and science institutions provided their inclination towards technopreneurship.

WN: It is perceived in general that there are several bottlenecks while dealing with government set ups in India. Are there challenges that students face while working with NSTEDB?

 Mr. Mittal: Students do not need to work directly with us. Since mentoring is core to entrepreneurial ecosystem, we run more than 50 Faculty Development Programs (FDP), where we train around 1400 teachers. Although being a government initiative, all activities happen at birthplace of ideas, the colleges. To facilitate this process further, we have set up Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Cell (IEDC) in around 25 management and engineering colleges during past five years. These centers epitomize knowledge based centers of innovation, driven by passion under guidance of right mentors.

WN: It does sound like a mechanism that helps in tracking innovation at grass-root level. How are the colleges for setting up these centers identified?

Mr. Mittal: We work with multidisciplinary centers in India like IIM – Ahmadabad, National Institute of Design and other colleges where we have access to a huge resource pool. We work with Incubators in these centers for evaluating ideas and business plans to fund them systematically for starting-up. We are in discussion with such institutions where proposals for new Incubators to be set up are constantly under review.

WN: Centers like IIM-A and NID are premier institutes; however, do you agree that remaining second tier and third tier colleges create a major proportion of technical knowledgebase and they lack a mechanism to capture innovation? How do you address this communication gap?

 Mr. Mittal: Certainly there is a communication gap between premiere institutions and other colleges. Lack of infrastructure or mentorship that supports out-of-the-box thinking is a major drawback in many institutions. But we have finest of examples where they prove to be the core of the technological innovation. Recently, a student from an engineering college in Mysore is coming up with a technology to track fake currency notes using cell phone proving to be a great example of innovation and it is need of the hour. While on a look out for new ideas which are core to our initiative, we conduct several business-plan competitions around the year in co-ordination with National Entrepreneurs Network (NEN) for staging such opportunities.

It is imperative to mention that besides communication gap, many colleges still need to catch up with innovative mindset and create ambitious faculty as well as students by adding self-employment in their strategic focus besides employment through jobs. Change is needed at every stage so that people understand importance of creativity and develop them to a level where they can help in shaping the society. It is noteworthy that trends have been changing for few years and we are constantly working towards leveling the playground for everyone.

WN: What can we expect from NSTEDB in future? Any message that you would to give out in particular.