National – Centre for Innovation and Incubation incepted by Utkal University, one of the oldest universities in India (based in Odisha) announces the launch of iDeathon M2M 2021 for aspiring entrepreneurs to pitch their innovative business ideas. The selected start-up founders will get selected for Upakram Incubation Program to kick start their entrepreneurial journey with like-minded catalysts.
As part of iDeathon M2M 2021, the 3 best ideas will get a cash award from the incubation centre. In addition, the centre will also provide pre-incubation support to the best 20 ideas, prototype grants for best 5 ideas after Pre-Incubation. The start-ups with the most innovative ideas will also be connected to the centre’s expansive network of investors.
Delighted with the launch, Dr. Manisha Acharya, CEO of CII said, “Through iDeathon M2M 2021, we are looking for breakthrough ideas and handhold them from creating a powerful business model to a winning investor pitch. Additionally, Utkal University’s research lab and CII will play a critical role together in transforming a nascent stage idea to a full-fledged start-up with a go-to-market strategy.”
Commenting on the launch of the start-up launch pad program, Prof. Sabita Acharya, Vice-Chancellor, Utkal University said, “The Centre for Innovation and Incubation at Utkal University is giving a jumpstart to our Start-Up Incubation program through its maiden Ideathon program “iDeathon M2M 2021”. We have decided to pole vault our steps to quickly attain traction in our objective to position our Center as an epi-center of Start-Up activity in the state and entire eastern and north-eastern India.”
CII aims to promote and nurture the culture of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in new-age founders. To build a disruptive start-up ecosystem, the centre also announces the launch of the Upakram Incubation Program, a 6 months (24 weeks) game-changer Launch pad program for start-ups at the ideation stage. It gives entrepreneurs at the nascent stage the right platform to validate their idea and move forward to develop it into a marketable Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and viable business model.
Upakram Incubation Program focuses on providing necessary technical support, right mentoring and creating the right platform for networking, while preparing them for understanding the technical feasibility of the idea proposed. The program will also provide a one-month pre-incubation training to cover problem understanding and identification, idea generation, evaluation and validation, developing Business Model Canvas and structured inputs on ideation to implementation.
Furthermore, to have a go-to-market strategy in place, the pre-incubation training will also cover product-market fit analysis, market analysis (Know your market), customer analysis (Know your customer) and Revenue Streams. The start-ups will also get extensive support from CII mentors in developing a robust business plan out of ideas and fine-tuning of pitch presentationsto gain investors’ interest.
The registration for iDeathon M2M 2021 is open for Students, Innovators, Early-stage start-ups, Faculty, Research Scholars, individuals or team of up to 4 individuals in the arena of Agriculture, Food, Green Technology, Eco-Tourism, Herbal & Nutraceutical, Circular Economy, Renewable Energy, Rural Technology, IT & ICT, FINTech, Affordable Healthcare, EduTech and many among others.
The selection of the most innovative start-up ideas will be done by industry leaders, experts, Investors, officials from Govt forums including MSME/DST/Start-up council. The last date of registration is October 20, 2021 and the results will be declared on October 30, 2021.
The interested candidates can submit multiple ideas and apply for registration online by filling up this form https://forms.gle/7jyMpTUF5CDiUgXk9*.
About Utkal University
Utkal University is the oldest university in Odisha and the 17th-oldest in India. It is a teaching and research-cum-affiliating university located at Vanivihar over a sprawling 399.9 acres area in the heart of the capital city of Bhubaneswar. The University has territorial jurisdiction over 9 districts (Angul, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh and Puri), covering 24,973sq. kilometers and caters to the higher education needs of more than 110 lakh people.The University offers 27 full-fledged regular Postgraduate Programs and 17 Self Financing programs within the campus and has 200+ affiliated colleges covering Humanities and Social Sciences, Science & Technology, Commerce and Management, Pedagogical Science (Education), Medicine (including Ayurveda, Homeopathy) and Law. It has produced a large number of distinguished alumni belonging to all walks of life viz., Medicine, Law, Civil Services, Literature, Economics & Finance, Science,Politics, Journalism, etc. The University has been a Centre of excellence in higher education with a focus on innovative teaching, learning, research, consultancy and extension activities contributing to the building of a creative, enlightened and productive civil society.
About CII
CII at Utkal University has the potential and capacity towards positively contributing to the National objective of promoting Atma-Nirbhar Bharat by encompassing all the 5 Is of Intent, Inclusion, Investment, Infrastructure and Innovation by creating, promoting and sustaining an ambient eco-system.
The aim of the incubation centre is to promote and nurture the culture of Innovation and Entrepreneurship within Utkal University as well as other affiliated colleges of Utkal University in different part of Odisha. It is also aiming to review the research and technology by various Departments for incubation and spin-offs. CII aims to create a good number of quality Innovators and Entrepreneurs in due course of time. With the strategic locational advantage in Bhubaneswar and the brand value of being one of the oldest Universities in India, we can look forward to make CII a World class Incubation centre.
It aims to pioneer the start-up culture not only in the urban city corridors, but also among the less known but highly talented and motivated entrepreneurs of the rural hinterland.
