DU invites applications from startup innovators, offers incubation

NEW DELHI: Delhi University's Cluster Innovation Centre (CIC) is inviting applications from people with startup ideas with "commercial viability" to help them see through their execution. The applications will remain open till March 13. "Anybody from the university or in fact outside the university with a promising idea can apply," said CIC Director Shobha Bagai.

The university is planning to take in four startups and provide them with assistance. No stipend or financial support will be offered, Bagai said. "We are trying to help these young minds. We are starting startups which have certain ideas but are at the very very basic stage... they need working space and they need a certain mentor to take them to the next step," she said. Bagai said the CIC wanted to formalise the initiative hence it advertised the offer.

Also Read | Delhi University: 1,700 students apply for DU's fee waiver scheme

"Mentors will be from our faculty and people from outside." Under the initiative, the university will offer co-working space and mentoring support for 3+3 months, Bagai said. The promoters must have the technical skills for prototyping for converting their idea into a product. There are certain parameters on which an application will be judged by a committee led by CIC faculty. "We have already asked them to fill up a form.

In that form, they have to give all the details, whether they are receiving any kind of funding and at what stage is their product. We have asked them about the flow chart about their plans," Bagai said. The Cluster Innovation Centre - or CIC as it is popularly known - has been designed to seek and derive innovations from industrial clusters, village clusters, slum clusters, and educational clusters.

Also Read | Delhi University may launch MBA in Business Analytics, BA psychology through ODL

"Under Cluster Innovation Centre, we used to design an incubation centre funded by the Ministry of Education. There were some successful startups under the DIC. "During the COVID, these things came to a standstill. We are now restarting that. We are focusing on start-ups," the director said.