Plans to launch entrepreneurship development programs
The Maker Village here plans to associate with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) by launching pioneering schemes that promote entrepreneurship and innovation.
The Maker Village is a joint initiative of the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala established by the State Government.
AICTE Vice Chairman M.P. Poonia visited the Maker Village at Kalamassery recently and held talks with top officials of the facility that has around 75 startu-ps developing state-of-the-art hardware electronic products in divergent areas.
Prof. Poonia said he was “truly impressed” by the kind of innovations and the cutting-edge products shaping up at the Maker Village. The AICTE will explore the possibility of arriving at a broader framework of understanding for engaging with the Maker Village. The AICTE will “seriously consider” three initiatives: getting the Maker Village, along with an academic institution, partner with the AICTE for entrepreneurship development programs, conduct a national-level hardware hackathon of AICTE at the Maker Village and an AICTE innovation ambassador programme at the Maker Village.
Prasad Balakrishnan Nair, CEO of the Maker Village, said a collaboration with the AICTE will enable the Maker Village to launch projects based on innovative ideas, improving the incubator’s performance level. “Connecting with the all-India network of the AICTE will add tremendous value to us,” Mr. Nair said adding that inking a pact with the AICTE can woo the country’s brightest entrepreneurial minds from the technology student community to the Maker Village.
The start-ups in the Maker Village are into developing products in areas such as automation, robotics, drones, Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, biomedical instrumentation and energy management, among others. Most of the start-ups leverage cutting-edge technologies such as machine-learning, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality to make their products innovative and globally competitive.
