NIT Karnataka’s entrepreneurship model goes beyond incubators and into classrooms; now it’ll guide other NITs

NIT Karnataka Surathkal: Potharaveni Shashank Yadav, 20 and in third-year of BTech electrical and electronics engineering in the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NIT K) Surathkal, has co-founded an online acting audition platform with fellow student, Dhanush, after pitching the idea at a campus event last year.

“My co-founder Dhanush, another student from NIT K, came up with an idea of making a website where we can pass acting auditions and pitched it at the Launchpad event last year, organised by NIT K Science and Technology Entrepreneurs' Park (STEP),” Yadav told Careers360. Every year, the STEP Launchpad sees students pitch startup ideas and supports select ones with grants of up to Rs 1 lakh. The grantees also gain access to mentors, alumni and potential investors. Yadav and Dhanush’s platform is now registered as a private company and has three interns.

“Fifteen teams have received funding through Launchpad over the past three years,” said Suprabha KR, associate professor at NIT Surathkal. “Some five or six startups have also registered with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), with some already reporting sales and market traction.”

Having made progress over a short period of time, the institute is looking to guide other NITs with building student entrepreneurship. During the latest NIT Council discussions , NIT K was entrusted with the responsibility of helping other NITs strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship on their campuses. “NIT K has built an ecosystem which focuses on how students can be prepared for real life, identify problems till incubation, scaling-up, and entering the market,” said B Ravi, director , NIT Karnataka Surathkal. The institute recently organised an all-NITs deans conclave to share their innovation and entrepreneurship model.

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The institute is planning an online pitching event in December 2026, followed by an in-person pitching conclave in January 2027, where startups from different NITs can present their ideas, receive feedback and explore funding opportunities.

B Ravi, director, NIT K Surathkal, addressing deans at the conclave (Image: Careers360)

NIT Karnataka Entrepreneurship: Launchpad grants, startups

Launchpad is one of the routes for providing financial support to student entrepreneurs. Selected students get three months to develop their ideas. “To teams that we feel can take [the idea] forward, we give a seed grant of up to Rs 1 lakh per team,” said Suprabha.

Rechristened “Idea to Impact” from 2026, the programme will now include eight sessions of mentoring.

Sean Winroyce Pereira, also 20 and an EEE student at NITK, developed ActivBite, a protein breakfast bar, through the programme. “I received a grant of Rs 50,000,” he said. “Institute awards amount depending on the evaluation of the proposal.”

Beyond funds and mentorship, students get access to relevant labs within NIT Karnataka as well as office space, at as low a cost as Rs 2,000. “I used the grant on research and development. We launched ActivBite on campus about a fortnight ago and plan to focus on college students for the first two months before taking it to the wider market,” said Pereira.

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Some ideas are born out of everyday campus needs. Ramachandra Bhat, dean of research and innovation at NITK, cited ActivBite as an example of an idea developed through the Institute Innovation Council (IIC). Priced at around Rs 40, the protein bar was conceived in response to the observation that many students were not eating breakfast.

NIT Surathkal Curriculum: Design thinking, entrepreneurship

NITK's innovation ecosystem is not bound by an incubator’s terms or restricted to a specific entrepreneurship programme. It extends into regular academic activities and is baked into the curriculum.

Suprabha KR said first-year students are introduced to design thinking, where they learn to identify problems by examining users' experiences and applying human-centred design. If interested, students can opt for an open elective course on entrepreneurship, offered since 2016.

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Students can also participate in hackathons organised by technical clubs and in activities supported by the IIC. An entrepreneurship cell, run by students with faculty guidance, provides another avenue to explore ideas. Students can approach faculty members for guidance and be connected to the people or facilities relevant to their projects.

This year, the institute has added a ‘design thinking and prototyping’ course to its BTech curriculum. “Although the course began two years ago, it was formally introduced this year,” Suprabha stated.

Another student startup – Odyssey AI – emerged from it.

Students in a reading room at NIT K (Image: Careers360)

NIT Surathkal rejigs classroom teaching

Further, NITK has reduced the emphasis on classroom teaching by removing 10-15 credits. “This has created more room for activities beyond conventional classroom learning. The broader curriculum also includes physical, cultural, technical and professional life skills,” said Yadav.

Bhat said the changes respond to the need for students to gain practical experience alongside theoretical knowledge. “Based on the requirements of the industry as well as the modern world, it is not enough that we train the students only on the theory. We need to give the students a practical orientation and practical experience,” he said.

Plus, the academic departments allow and encourage projects as well. Surya, in final year of BTech mechanical engineering, said students are encouraged to undertake projects from the second year. Departmental capstone projects mean faculty support over multiple sessions, while the student-run entrepreneurship club offers another route for developing ideas.

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Entrepreneurship at NIT K: SEARCH and STEP

The institute's innovation pipeline includes System for Emergency Assistance, Response and Communication Hub (SEARCH), where students begin ideation, followed by the Idea Factory, where they can develop prototypes. Idea stands for “ideation, design, engineering and application”. To draw on expertise from multiple disciplines, students can approach the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies, which facilitates collaborations between faculty members from different disciplines.

Promising ideas move to STEP for incubation and further development.

STEP supports industry-linked curricula, product innovation, technology licensing and startup monitoring. NITK also has a Central Research Facility where students can test their products for quality.

Started this year, the department of design and entrepreneurship is intended to connect these innovation-related initiatives, including Idea Factory, SEARCH and STEP across the campus.

Ravi said the ecosystem is designed to help students understand the entire process, from identifying a problem and developing a solution to filing a patent, licensing technology to industry and starting a company.

NITK's Idea Factory podcast room (Image: Careers360) Through NIT Connect, Yadav and other startup founders were taken to Bengaluru and introduced to around 150 to 200 investors. They continue to share updates with investors and maintain those connections.

NIT placements vs entrepreneurship

Despite the support available, not every student is willing to pursue entrepreneurship. “The entrepreneurship elective attracts hundreds of registrations, after which students are shortlisted based on their interest and aptitude. However, many students prioritise campus placements, making it difficult for some teams to devote sufficient time to their ventures,” said Suprabha.

“The course is not taught, it is practised. At the end of the course, they have to pitch, and they have to have a minimum viable product (MVP). But that is not happening to its full potential because placements are there.”

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Some continue to work on startups alongside their jobs, but employment commitments can push entrepreneurship to the sidelines, she said. NITK’s deferred placement system gives such students both time and security.

Some students who received grants from NIT Karnataka’s Capacity Building and Design and Entrepreneurship (CBD) initiative have opted out of placements.

NITK: Exporting the model and fund crunch

Though NITs are being pushed to bolster innovation and entrepreneurship, the challenge of funding and infrastructure persists.

“The uneven availability of infrastructure and funding across NITs is a challenge,” said a dean from a second-generation NIT who attended the conclave. Ravi acknowledged this and added, “NIT Surathkal is relatively fortunate in having the support and facilities required to nurture startups. Other NITs may not have comparable infrastructure or financial resources.”

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However, he said the absence of a formal incubator does not mean an institute has no entrepreneurial activity. Students across NITs are already working on startups, and the proposed mentoring initiative aims to bring these ventures to a common platform where they can receive advice, evaluation and potential funding.

Building inter-NIT startup network

NITK's next step is to connect startups across the NIT system and help them progress from campus-level initiatives to pitching, incubation and market-entry . The December and January events are intended to identify ventures that could benefit from investors, mentors and industry connections.

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The institute also hopes to develop an inter-NIT consortium through which institutions can share expertise and support. The Capacity Building and Design and Entrepreneurship initiative is another part of this effort. Suprabha said, “The initiative is present across NITs under a ministry mandate and can be used to support entrepreneurial activities and provide seed grants.”

NITK's model will be judged not only by the startups it produces on its own campus but also by whether its model can be adapted to institutes with different levels of funding, infrastructure and faculty support. “The broader aim is to help more students identify problems, develop solutions and build ventures, regardless of whether their institute already has a dedicated incubator,” Ravi said.