KSUM to felicitate Idea Fest 2021 winners

KSUM to felicitate Idea Fest 2021 winners

Higher Education Minister Dr Bindu chief guest at June 20 event / June 18, 2022

Thiruvananthapuram, June 18: Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) will honour the winners of Idea Fest 2021, a programme to identify student innovators and techno-entrepreneurs from campuses through its IEDC (Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre) scheme, here on June 20.  

Minister for Higher Education Dr. R Bindu will be the chief guest at the felicitation ceremony, to be held at 3.30 pm at Travancore Hall, Technopark Campus.

In Idea Fest 2021, a total of 681 ideas were received and an expert panel selected 68 ideas that are eligible for getting a grant of Rs two lakh each besides mentorship, lab and other product development supports from KSUM. Applications received for the IPL programme (Innovator’s Premier League) and Idea Day were also considered for the grant.     

A flagship initiative of KSUM, IEDC is meant for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship among students and academic fraternity in the educational institutions across the state.

KSUM has a network of 341 mini-incubators, called IEDCs, on campuses. Launched in 2014, IEDC also aims at promoting entrepreneurial culture in educational institutions and developing institutional mechanisms to foster techno-entrepreneurs.

KSUM conducted an Accreditation of IEDCs based on the activities from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2021, and eight colleges were accredited in the process. The Accredited IEDCs also participated in the Idea Fest programme.

Idea Fest is conducted to provide students an opportunity to present their ideas or college projects, which can be converted into a practical real world solution, before an elite panel. The shortlisted teams by the panel will be offered grants based on the development stage and innovative value of their ideas.

IEDC is also as an umbrella programme that plays an instrumental role in fostering innovation culture in academic institutions. The IEDCs on campuses work as the first launch pad for a student’s entrepreneurial journey. These Centres are envisaged as a learning and innovation hub that creates innovation culture among students by introducing them to the state-of-the-art technologies and expert mentors.

IEDC will help bridge the gap between industry and academia by conducting skill development training programmes for students. It acts as an aggregator by focusing on innovation, technology and entrepreneurship for growth.      

KSUM is the nodal agency of the Kerala government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state.