VJTI-TBI has entered into an MoU with LTI to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem at VJTI under the AVISHKAR program. Earlier LTI supported the entrepreneurial ecosystem at VJTI under AGRIM program.
Under AGRIM, LTI has supported three Ph.D. students and one M.Tech student from VJTI with fellowship. Students were also supported with travel grants to attend conferences both nationally and internationally. More than sixty students have been supported under LTI-VJTI Internship Program. Some of the projects undertaken by students under AGRIM have bought laurels to VJTI including winning prize in Global Cyber Challenge Peace-a-thon (2017), Singapore-India Hackathon (2018), first prize at Global Blockchain Congress (2018) and first place at Global WRC Hackathon (2019).
Considering the success of AGRIM, both LTI and VJTI decided to extend the benefits of the program to entrepreneurs in the VJTI ecosystem under a new AVISHKAR program. Under AVISHKAR, VJTI-TBI and LTI will focus on achieving following objectives:
- Create enabling infrastructure for fostering transformational research & innovation. This includes creation of co-working spaces for start-ups, thrust area laboratory support for converting ideas into products
- Support entrepreneur from socio-economically challenged background and weaker sections of society through seed-money funding
- Provide equal opportunities and empowerment to women entrepreneurs
- Development of technology based solutions for societal problems and sustainable environment which includes affordable and clean energy, clean water and climate action
- Improve quality of education by creating avenues for experiential learning, internship opportunities in start-ups and conducting mentoring sessions from domain experts
- Creating awareness about intellectual property rights (IPR) and wealth creation for economic growth
Under AVISHKAR, LTI will support VJTI-TBI towards
- Developing infrastructure facilities, co-working space, meeting room for start-ups and meeting cabins.
- Seed money to identified start-ups as per focus areas of LTI/SDG Goals, women entrepreneurs, socio-economically challenged backgrounds.
- Contingency funds to cover procurement of consumables and support travel of incubatees for attending conferences, trainings and workshops.