Tag: STEP

STEP towards Innovation Drive

IIT Kharagpur has been among the firsts to build industrial parks within an academic setup, in the country. While the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park (STEP) was set up within and in the vicinity of the IIT Kharagpur campus, a Research Park has also been built in Kolkata to set up industrial laboratories involving researchers from IIT Kharagpur. STEP is aimed at encouraging and nurturing students to launch their startups through incubation facilities.

Recently Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur in the context of mobile application development by Indian companies, has been vocal about start-up ecosystem in technical institutions. While keeping his faith on STEP IIT Kharagpur he  can lead the initiative through seed funding and incubation facility.

Prof. Siddhartha Das, the newly appointed Managing Director of Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park, shares his insights regarding STEP towards this end.

  • How STEP has been providing incubation support to startups? 

The Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park at IIT Kharagpur sprawls over 20,000 sq.ft. of incubation space which is made available to startups for incubation. While fully constructed laboratory facilities are available, mobile laboratories for conducting experiments have been developed too. Further the Park is equipped with conference space for brainstorming and collaboration. 

Apart from space for R&D and operations, STEP performs few critical functions which are essential for startups:

i) Seed Funding

ii) Intellectual Property and other techno-legal requirements

iii) Business operations Advisory

i) Seed Funding – Seed funding is one of the most important aspects of a start-up and for a company incubated at STEP, the following seed loans are provided: (a) Technology Business Incubator (TBI) Seed Loan, (b) Technology Incubation and Entrepreneurship Training Society (TIETS) Seed Loan, (c) Technology Development Board (TDB) Seed Loan and (d) Technology Incubation & Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) Seed Loan. 

The seed loan amount ranges from ₹ 2 – 25 Lakh per start-up depending on the budget for the technology commercialization and business operations.

ii) Intellectual Property and Techno-legal requirements – Offering support in acquiring intellectual property rights is another important function of STEP. The unit collaborates with the law school of IIT Kharagpur, Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, towards conducting seminars and workshops round the year and educating entrepreneurs in techno-legal matters. Further, the IPR office of the Institute facilitates filing of IP and registration.

iii) Marketing and Business Operations – Now, probably the most important part of a business is marketing because that is what introduces the product to the world. STEP has been seeking expertise from one of the top most business schools in India as ranked by MHRD’s NIRF – Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM). Not only its presence on the campus, but VGSOM is known for its innovative practices, focus on research and industrial consultancy, educational outreach, which make it just the right partner for STEP to enrich the marketing experience of the startups incubated at the Park. The faculty experts from VGSOM conduct lectures, seminars and discussion forums to train startups towards managing business operations efficiently and marketing of the products developed by them.

  • Who can apply for incubating their startup ideas under STEP?

A key factor for STEP is its inclusiveness. The unit is open to any technology-based start-up with the legal status to register and operate in India irrespective of whether they are associated with the Institute or not. It enables STEP to not only invite the 750+ faculty or 60000+ alumni worldwide or the current students, but also any Indian with the ambition to innovate new technologies. Furthermore, STEP is in the process of starting collaboration with MSMEs across the eastern region for entrepreneurship development. To promote technical advisory and networking it is also collaborating with various chambers of commerce and capital rich industries.

  • Will there be any special drive for developing mobile applications?

Our Director Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari has affirmed that the incubation facilities at various technical institutions in India are capable of leading such drives. STEP IIT Kharagpur, indeed can emerge as a beacon because of our existing system of incubation through infrastructure, operational support and seed funding. STEP can boast of a decent record in terms of incubation. The total no. of companies incubated till date are 200 out of which 183 companies have graduated and 17 are being mentored.

In the current situation, it is quite important that useful mobile applications and services are designed and operated in India. The Director has already mentioned planning for a drive to call for submission of proposals for mobile application development which can be sponsored by the Institute. If the technologies developed are market worthy or for the B2B industry, then STEP would certainly step into the process to incubate them into startups for future use by India.

Netting a windfall

The Economic Times     India Today     Business Standard   NDTV

A bioactive product invented by a start-up incubated at IIT Kharagpur’s STEP (Science and Technology Entrepreneurs’ Park) is silently changing the face of aquaculture in Eastern Midnapore. ‘Mr Fish’, produced with the latest technology, is one-of-a-kind of product that not only increases the size of the fish produced in the least possible time but, and more importantly, enhances its taste and nutritional quality. Produced by Zelence Industries Pvt. Ltd. (www.myzelence.com), the start-up from IIT Kharagpur, the product has come as a boon to fish farmers in Bengal and neighbouring Orissa.

Both the states have seen a phenomenal increase in the demand of carp and shrimp in the past few years. In the riverine lowland areas of eastern Midnapore, where the product is being tried, farmers once felt helpless as large tracts of their land remained flooded for a sizeable part of the year. They now either use the water to undertake fish farming themselves for a few months or give their submerged lands on a contract-basis to farmers who carry out aquaculture. The result has been a booming business in fish.

However, unscientific farming practices along with high stocking density have led to a culture of fish farming where the quality of the product is mostly neglected. There are complaints from the consumers about the deteriorating taste of the cultivated fishes. The fishes also suffer from early decomposition. “So far, there has been no product available in the market that deals with these problems, enhances fish quality or stops the deterioration in taste. Most of the products deal with disease control in farming but no product till date ensures fish taste and quality. That is why Mr Fish is such a novelty,” says Prof. Jayanta Bhattacharya of the Department of Mining Engineering and School of Environmental Science and Engineering. Prof. Bhattacharya is one of the directors of Zelence.

Mr Fish is produced from natural bioactive molecules and some isolated and innovated probiotics. The listed components are Kelp extract, medicinal plant extract, Lactobaccillus plantatum, Lactobacillus acidophilus,etc. Of high liquid consistency, Mr Fish improves the feed conversion ratio, enhances particular amino acids, and regulates the control of uniform distribution of fats and proteins in fish cells that results in improved shine, storability and taste of fish.

“When used in the right quantity, within the same time and with the use of the same amount of food as before, the rate of growth and shine of the fish and shrimp are comparatively much better than that produced by fish farms that do not use our product. Mr Fish increases resistance power in fish, and enhances the quality and texture of fish by evenly distributing the fatty acid content and right amount of taste active components such as TMAO, glycins, alanine, monophosphates and so on, plus increasing the feed conversion ratio,” says Dr Bidus Kanti Das, Biotechnologist, who holds a PhD from IIT Kharagpur, and is a Director of Zelence. The prescribed quantity for carp is 60-100 ml per metric ton of feed and 120-200 ml for shrimp. Mr Fish has to be mixed well with the fish feed.

Mr. Biswajit Das, a fish farmer from Bhemua, Sabang, who is in this profession since 2002, and is currently cultivating in a 97 acre jheel/lake observed, “The taste is far better than in previous occasions, and this has been repeatedly reported by traders and consumers. The growth is now at an expected level. I would recommend Mr Fish to other farmers also”.

Pijush Kanti Bhanja, a fish farmer in Moyna, who used Mr Fish for a month and saw dramatic improvements said, “All the varieties of carp, particularly the Roopchand, in my farm have undergone a healthy increase in size. In fact, my neighbours, who have asked me for fish have told me that my fish tastes much better than those available in the market.”

Subhasish Bera, a farmer in Kishorepur who used Mr Fish for three months, reports, “I have needed comparatively less food this time for my fish. Besides, the taste of the fish is much better. There is a lot of oil in the fish as well.”

Prof. Bhattacharya says, “Traders who transport the fish are now more interested in selling the fish developed with Mr Fish because of better price and quantity. The quality improvement has increased the price of fish as well. During dull season, the produce that fetched Rs 50 a kilogram now fetch Rs 80 per kilogram. In a saturated market of fishes, distinctiveness attracts more buyers, steady market and better price. Zelence has made a difference for over the past one-and-a-half years.”

The firm first started testing the product in small ponds from 2015. “The product was matured in June 2018, when we released Mr Fish in the market. Now the product is used in Simlapal in Bankura, Moyna, Sabang, Narayangarh and some areas of Midnapore and the reports are exciting,” says Dr Das. The fish from East Midnapore go to north Bengal, Ranchi and even Bhubaneswar.

At a time when there is talk of rural distress across India, the increased prosperity from aquaculture is reflected in the growing number of schools and other amenities in the Eastern Midnapore region. There is growing interest and enquiry about Mr Fish from farmers of West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring Bangladesh.

Zelence has several other innovations to its credit. All of these have been commercialized successfully in the area of nanotechnology, bioactive molecules, microbial consortium for application in agriculture, animal husbandry and environmental engineering. Zelence is being incubated at STEP since 2017. It is one of the many successful start-ups incubated at IIT Kharagpur. One among these successes is Capillary Technologies, which is a software product company providing cloud-based Omnichannel Customer Engagement, eCommerce platform and related services for retailers and brands.

(For more information on Zelence: +91-7001564058)

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