india

Updated: Jul 02, 2019 22:33 IST

Odisha is planning to introduce a chapter on entrepreneurship and innovation in schools and university syllabi to help promote a culture of entrepreneurship and build ecosystem for startups, a top government official said.

The micro, small and medium enterprises(MSME) department, which is the nodal department for start-ups in Odisha, has now asked the state school and mass education department as well as higher education department to introduce such courses to build a culture of entrepreneurship and ecosystem start-ups.

Startup Odisha, a flagship initiative of Odisha government under the Odisha Startup policy 2016, aims to make the state as one of the top three start-up hubs in the country. It aims to support to at least 1,000 start-ups in the country by 2020. So far, Startup Odisha has registered 435 start-ups, 12 incubators (organisations that support start-up companies) and 12 nodal agencies (government or such other institutions). Last year, the Centre government’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion declared Odisha as ‘Top Performer’ in the Startup Ranking-2018.

Additional chief secretary of MSME department, LN Gupta, said, in the last startup council meeting, his department had asked for such courses in the university level as well as chapters in school syllabus. “The government would support universities to train the faculty for promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship. We already have a policy which supports this,” Gupta said.

Gupta said a sabbatical scheme would be introduced for college and university professors who work along with students at an incubator to pursue entrepreneurship for a specified period. In case any faculty decides to join a start-up approved by the nodal agency, the faculty will be eligible for an extraordinary leave without payment for a maximum period of 3 years,” he said.

The encourage start-ups at school and college levels, the state government has been organising boot camps in various private and government colleges like Vikram Dev College in Koraput, National Institute of Technology in Rourkela and Sri Sri University in Cuttack.

Head of Magnum Group of Industries, Ramesh Mahapatra, said inclusion of startups and entrepreneurship in school and university curriculum was a great step in fostering the start-up ecosystem.

“Odisha was never known for entrepreneurship. But now it is coming up fast in startup ecosystem. Countries like US and Japan grew over last several decades due to an excellent startup culture. If our youth get hooked onto the idea of start-ups from a young age, then the problem of unemployment can be taken care of,” said Mahapatra.