S. Vishnu Sharma
NIT Rourkela (NIT-R) has made it to limelight once again with its noble initiative of funding startups.
Foundation for Technology and Business Incubation (FTBI) centre based at NIT Rourkela (National Institute of Technology Rourkeka, NIT-R) has selected two startups to support them under Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiRs) programme to support the young start-ups that have innovative ideas.
NIT Rourkela funds 2 great regional startups
The two startups selected by FTBI based at NIT Rourkela are Yarev Technology Pvt Ltd and Clavictor Academy Pvt Ltd for their innovative approaches for the betterment of society at large.
Speaking about the selected startups, NIT Rourkela director and chairman of FTBI Professor Animesh Biswas said he was delighted at the innovations created by Yarev Technologies and Clavictor Academy which was done at FTBI-NIT Rourkela.
‘This has taken NIT Rourkela to greater heights. I do believe, soon we would be able to achieve more of such innovations which would also fetch us higher positions in the Atal Rankings of Institutions and Innovation Achievements.’
Yarev Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is a start-up incubated by the FTBI that focuses on manufacturing disruptive solutions in the field of home automation, water quality monitoring and water conservation, automated submersible starters, IoT enabled, Automatic Hand Sanitizer Dispenser (Drop and Mist) and Automatic Soap Dispenser.
The company’s latest product is Automatic Sanitizer Dispenser (ASAR) which will be a frontline defence in the fight against the pandemic.
This is a zero-touch dispenser for soap or hand sanitizer with the price range of Rs. 2000/- to Rs. 7000/-.
The start-up has been provided with grant money of Rs. 7 lakh under the ‘Product/Prototyping’ grant by FTBI based at NIT Rourkela.
The start-up wants to use the fund in development of the new product, R&D of the product and procurement of machines.
The start-up is founded by Mr. Avinash Kumar, Founder and CEO, and Ms. Reeya Chaurasia, Co-Founder and COO. Both of them completed their B.Tech from NIT Rourkela.
Clavictor Academy Pvt. Ltd. aims to provide a better quality of education to the State Board students who are unable to attend the physical classes.
The start-up has developed a mobile application called ‘Clavimate’ to improve students’ understanding of the subjects and perform better in their upcoming board and entrance exams.
Mr. Suraj Kumar Nayak, is the founder and CEO of Clavictor Academy Pvt. Ltd. He completed his M.Tech in Biomedical Engineering from the Department of Biotechnology and Medical Engineering at NIT Rourkela in 2015.
Currently, he is completing his PhD from NIT Rourkela. Clavictor Academy has been provided with a grant of Rs. 4 lakh under the EiR grant by FTBI for their work.
Clavictor Academy wishes to use the grant obtained from FTBI based at NIT Rourkela to upgrade their online education platform to incorporate new features useful for students like the development of student application usage data analytics feature to increase the engagement of the students with the application.
They will also use the grant to create animated video lectures for students.
The solution proposed by Clavictor Academy is a personalised, technically enriched and learning platform via mobile application and website for the state board students.
The application and website comprise of all the necessary services that a student requires to learn the subject properly so that they can perform well in the exam.
They also provide animated video as well as live classes for the students so that they can visualise and learn the concepts.
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Clavictor Academy provides Online doubt clearing facility so that the students can clarify their doubts.
Students are also encouraged to appear for the regular assessments so that the academy can check their performance and put more effort into their weak areas.
The performance report, as well as the subject matter studied by the student, can be checked by the guardian through a separate platform so that they can get a real-time update of their children’s effort and performance.
As most of the state board students belong to the rural areas having low internet speed, the academy has planned an offline mode of study on their application.
Currently, Clavictor Academy is catering the needs of the students of 11th and 12th standards of Odisha Board.
From October 2020, the academy will start online education services for 8th and 10th standards of Odisha Board.
Since the inception, the company has served the needs of more than 1500 students.
Professor-in-charge at FTBI of NIT Rourkela Dr. Debayan Sarkar said FTBI is Section 8 Company, supported by Department of Science and Technology (DST) and is based at NIT Rourkela.
It is one of the fastest emerging incubation centres in western Odisha and aspires to become a hub of entrepreneurial activities.
Established in 2016, in four years of journey, it has nurtured several start-ups, mostly founded and run by students and alumni.
Some of our notable start-ups include Phoenix Robotix, Estinno Energy, Awalk Innovations, Fastech Fashions and Clavictor Academy.
They employ more than 150 employees and are expanding their footprint all over the country, said Debayan Sarkar.
It is interesting to note that both the start-ups will be incubated under this programme for a period of one year that can be extended by another six months upon the steering committee’s approval.
Apart from the funding programme, seven other start-ups have been selected for induction at FTBI at NIT Rourkela.
The selected start-ups will be provided with office space, manufacturing units and other amenities including IT systems, legal services, mentorship by NIT Rourkela faculty and access to laboratories.
The start-ups will also be provided with training in business management and business communication and tie-ups with chartered accountants and other professional organisations for accounting, IP, legal and management expertise.
These start-ups will also be eligible for further rounds of funding under various other schemes and programmes running at the FTBI, NIT Rourkela.
About FTBI
Incorporated in May 2016 under the joint initiative of DST, Ministry of Education, Start-up India and Start-up Odisha, FTBI is a technology business incubator of NIT Rourkela.
The aim of the incubator is to contribute a small part to nation-building by providing its faculty members, students and incubatees a vibrant and facilitative start-up ecosystem.
The incubator envisages support for early-stage start-ups in IT/ITeS sector, with application in healthcare, education, agriculture, financial inclusion including digital payments, infrastructure and transportation, environment and cleantech, clean energy solutions and other emerging areas.
In a short span of 4 years, FTBI has registered 34 Start-up companies with more than 90 Incubatees working in teams.
Along with this, more than 28 teams are in Ideation and Maker’s Lab Facility under FTBI which has created more than 150 job opportunities and filed more than eight patents.
About NIT Rourkela
NIT Rourkela is one of the premier national level institutions for technical education in the country and is funded by the Government of India.
NIT Rourkela has earned 16th position in NIRF Ranking 2020 (Engineering Category) and overall 32nd position.
In Atal rankings 2020, NIT Rourkela has been placed in Band A (Rank Between 11th – 25th) among the Institute of National Importance, Central Universities.
The campus of the Institute consisting of the Institute buildings, halls of residence and staff colony in over an area of 262 hectares of land.
It is a residential campus offering accommodation to faculty, staff and students.
The campus has all the amenities for developing personal, social and academic skills of the student community.