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On Independence Day August 15, 2016, Gujarat Technological University (GTU) will take another step ahead by introducing India’s largest ‘student start-up’ literacy programme via the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform. The commencement address on the occasion will be given by the co-founder of Infosys Kris Gopalakrishnan. It is estimated that near to 50,000 students will be able to benefit from this programme each year.
The news was provided by Rajul Gajjar, in-charge Vice-Chancellor, GTU who also added that the program will also help students in learning about students across the globe who have been successful in initiating technology driven starts-ups in their colleges.
She further added that the programme will also help students to turn their final year projects into a ‘start-up’ which will be a great contribution to create jobs and improving the economy.
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The conceptualizer of this start-up program is Hiranmay Mahanta, Director, Innovation Council of GTU. While interacting with the press, Mahanta said that the main motive behind starting this programme was to treat entrepreneurship training or exposure as a substitute means of skill development. Further elaborating his point he said that even if the students fail with their business plan in college days then it will help them learn a lot in terms of modern skill sets which a formal academic environment cannot offer.
His concept behind this programme is that with more than 50 lakh students across 700 plus universities in India, there is a need to self-govern start-up movement in order to liberalize innovation and creativity that will help in leading India to the league of developed nations.
GTU is well recognized as India’s first large-scale state technology university. The university has been making remarkable efforts in developing and has been motivating a student start-up culture in over 500 campuses it has.
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Not long before GTU became the first state technical university in India to receive a Technology Business Incubator (TBI) from NSTEDB, Government of India.
Although this programme will be made compulsory for all third-semester students, other aspiring students can also benefit from the programme. As an add-on, it will also help build a virtual interface between successful start-ups in Silicon Valley and GTU students.
