Thapar University Brings Out the Entrepreneur in Students

• University’s Entrepreneurship Development Cell gives exposure to aspiring entrepreneurs by inviting experts from National Small Industries Corporation to guide them

• 250 final-year students attend seminar conducted by NSIC, get access to NSIC facilities for new start-ups, like finance, technical guidance, financial consultancy, marketing support, legal advice

• Participants enrolled on training website of MSME Ministry, provided unique login-IDs to source project reports, live demos of low-cost ventures, information on start-ups, business plans

Bringing alive the entrepreneurial spirit of students, the newly formed Entrepreneurship Development Cell of Thapar University, Patiala invited experts from the National Small Industries Corporation Ltd (NSIC) to the university campus on Wednesday to guide final-year students who want to set up their own ventures.

About 250 BE and ME final-year students who attended the seminar conducted by the NSIC as part of its Entrepreneurship Orientation Programme were provided access to NSIC facilities for new start-ups, like finance, technical guidance, financial consultancy, networking/marketing support and legal advice.

The participants were enrolled on the training website of the Union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and provided unique login-IDs to source project reports, live demonstrations of low-cost ventures occupying less space, videos of successful entrepreneurs sharing their experiences and information relating to start-ups and business plans. The login-IDs will be active for five years.

The NSIC is an ISO 9001-2008-certified Government of India enterprise under the MSME Ministry that promotes self-employment and entrepreneurship.

NSIC experts, including Rajesh Kumar, Deputy General Manager and Centre Head, Technical Services Centre, Rajpura, and Kumar Rohit, Assistant Manager (Technology), familiarised the participants with the role of MSMEs in the Indian economy, the process of setting up an enterprise and the concept and scope of self-employment. The students were provided various project profiles from which they can choose any project of their interest.

The Entrepreneurship Development Cell of Thapar University, which gave this exposure to young engineers to motivate them to become job-providers rather than job-seekers, will also provide funding for good business ideas through angel investors, Thapar University alumni and certain government schemes.

“This cell has been instituted to meet our larger objective of revitalising the entrepreneurial spirit of Punjab and its neighbouring states. Thapar University is also in the process of setting up a venture lab in collaboration with University of Twente, Netherlands to provide technological, financial, infrastructural and strategic support to budding entrepreneurs from within and outside Thapar University,” said Thapar University Director Prof Prakash Gopalan.

Entrepreneurship Development Cell president Dr MD Singh said the Cell would extend financial support to students for start-ups. “We will organise industrial visits for them, apart from interactive sessions with successful entrepreneurs. We will also seek funds from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Union Department of Science and Technology for a technical business incubator,” he said.

About Thapar University:

Thapar University, founded in 1956, is housed in a 250-acre campus in Patiala, Punjab. In 1985, it was awarded the status of a deemed university, and from then on took a quantum jump with focus on research and development, along with the need to adapt to the changing needs of the industry and the delivery of state-of-the-art technical and engineering education in India. In 2007, the LM Thapar School of Management was inaugurated. It has evolved over the years to provide management education conducive to the dynamic business environment.

Thapar University is committed to developing high quality, professionally groomed technical and engineering manpower possessing multifaceted personality with respect for professional and social ethics, national values and the spirit of human emancipation. Thapar University believes in providing opportunities to students to broaden their horizons and develop cross-cultural perspectives enabling them to engage in the adventure of learning and discovery.

Since its inception, nearly 16,000 students have graduated from the university and proceeded to achieve greater heights in their professional careers. The alumni have excelled in varied fields such as business and industry, administrative and regulatory services, research and education and social and human rights organizations. Thapar University is committed to contributing to the country’s progress in the field of higher education. The students from Thapar University have found top placements in India and abroad. World-renowned companies include Google Inc., Adobe, Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon, D C Shaw, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, UOP Ltd. L&T, Fidelity Investments, Deloitte, Nomura Software, etc visit the university on a regular basis.

Thapar University has created new synergies and enabled opportunities for exchange, dual-degree programmes with overseas universities and established research centres and industrial corporations. Some of the international universities with tie-ups with Thapar University include University of Waterloo, Canada, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Rose Bruford College for Theatre and Performance, University De Aveiro (UA), Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, ISA Group Lille, France, Brown University, USA. Both reputed Indian and international companies are associated with Thapar University for research as well as faculty exchange programmes. These include Intel, Microsoft, Wipro, and Sun, to name a few. Thapar University also has collaborations with various government organizations, including Department of Information Technology, Government of India, Central Scientific Instruments Organization, Chandigarh, Institute for Himalayan Biotechnology, Palampur, and Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun.

Thapar University is also engaged in quality research and consultancy activities. During the last five years, the faculty has published over 2,000 research papers in peer reviewed impact factors journals. In 2012, Thapar University published 316 SCI journal papers. These papers have been cited worldwide and are comparable with the top Indian universities. The faculty has filed 12 patents and the university has 119 ongoing projects with grants of Rs 25.72 crore.

Thapar University is ranked amongst the best worldwide. It is accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council of the UGC as “A” grade among all Indian universities. All its undergraduate programmes are accredited by the National Board of Accreditation. It emerged as the only institution north of Delhi to figure in the list of top 20 technical universities released by The Week for 2014 by bagging the 16th position. While Thapar University secured the 22nd rank in the India Today survey, it was rated as 3rd in the category of Top Engineering Colleges of Super Excellence in the Global Human Resource Development Centre-Competition Success Review Engineering College Survey for 2014. Furthermore, the university secured the 21st rank in the engineering category in the 2014 Outlook-Drshti Survey, which has also adjudged the university as India’s 6th best private engineering college and the 7th best overall in terms of student-faculty ratio.

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