A Meeting of Advisory Board of NewGen Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Center (IEDC) funded and supported by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India was held at the Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies (MRIIRS) campus.

NewGen IEDC is a Government of India sponsored initiative at MRIIRS to promote student start-ups and to take forward their innovations to commercialization stage. The center works on accelerating the journey of idea to prototype by providing initial funding assistance upto Rs. 2.5 lakhs (each project) from the DST grant to the student/student teams at Manav Rachna Campus.

Dr. N C Wadhwa, Vice Chancellor, MRIIRS and Chairman of the Advisory Board welcomed the members and expressed gratitude to DST and EDII for their support in creating an eco-system of innovation and start-ups in the University. The Board is represented by Mr. Navdeep Chawla, Chairman, Faridabad Industries Association (from industry) and Mr. Subodh Kaushik, Ex GM and Advisor, Punjab National Bank (from banking side). Also present on the occasion were Dr. Prashant Bhalla, President, MREI; Dr. Amit Bhalla, VP, MREI and Dr. Sanjay Srivastava, MD, MREI.

12 technology-driven start-ups at Manav Rachna were reviewed and appreciated by Dr. Naveen Vashist, DST nominee and Prof. S B Sareen, EDII Ahmedabad nominee. The action plan for the next year was also analyzed during the meeting. The Board emphasized on the need to motivate students to provide solutions to the problems of local industry and the five villages adopted by Manav Rachna.

The Secretary to the Board, Dr. Monika Goel, Chief Coordinator of NewGen IEDC, informed that the NewGEN IEDC team comprising Dr. Pradeep Varshney, Dr. Bindu Agarwal, Dr. Amit Seth and Mr. Karan Narula is tirelessly working on giving shape to the business ideas of the students. She added: “We are committed to meet the expectations of the Government to harness young minds and their innovation potential within the academic environment”.

It is noteworthy that during the last one year, Manav Rachna New Gen IEDC has undertaken  various activities to inculcate the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship amongst students in the university. It has worked on identification, development & commercialization of students’ innovative ideas and emphasized on enhancement Industry-Academia interaction for success of start-ups.

Ms. Lakhvinder Kaur Mentor of Naturoplast, a start-up under NewGen IEDC said, “Starting from just an idea to till date, it’s really been a long interesting and experience rich journey. The NewGen IEDC is the none other than a backbone for us. It is the only constant support all throughout in this journey. Be it in terms of connecting with people, participation in various events, in economic aspects, NewGen IEDC was always there to support and give shoulders.”

Sahil Tanwar and Mukul Phogaa, students working on Thapkrida Start up, which has developed three games and published them on google playstore and apple appstore in last six months said that they got the best technologies as desired, that includes software license, assets, plug-ins, other equipment and the office space which helped them to work with a greater pace. The team also got mentoring on developing different business strategies and financials from the center.