Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, Maharshi Dayanand University

Start with the idea on paper

• Write down the problem your idea solves and why it is new. The policy asks for ideas that solve a real problem, not only a new product.
• Check it against the university's priority areas: healthcare, agriculture and rural development, food processing, robotics and drones, waste and water, renewable energy, IoT, and ICT and AI.

Submit through the right route

• Ideas are submitted online to the university in the format it sets.
• Proposals go through the concerned HoD or Director at the incubation centre in the UIET building.

Expect a screening step

• An expert committee screens ideas. Shortlisted ideas may be asked to present to an evaluation committee.
• If you are shortlisted, expect a mentor from the university to be assigned to your idea.

Plan for company registration

• Student start-ups must be registered as a partnership firm, LLP, private limited company or one person company.
• The policy asks for a copy of the registration certificate.

Check the current policy before you rely on it

• The readable copy of the policy is labelled as a rough draft. Ask the centre for the approved version and current call dates.
• Ask about equity and fee terms in writing before you sign anything.

The Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship is the umbrella body for innovation and entrepreneurship at Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) in Rohtak, Haryana. The university set it up to build an ecosystem that supports innovation on campus and to commercialise technology developed by its faculty or students. It is a centre of the university rather than a separate company, and its pages name a director and a deputy director.

What the centre is for

The centre's stated aim is to turn the ideas of students and faculty into startups and entrepreneurial ventures, and to shift people from wanting to be employees to becoming employers. Its objectives include building an IPR-aware environment, moving university innovations into startups through incubation, and developing skilled people for industry.

How the pathway works

The university's innovation and startup policy describes a pre-incubation stage followed by incubation. In pre-incubation, an idea is submitted online and screened by an expert committee. Shortlisted ideas are developed under a mentor from the university. Innovators then build a prototype and prepare a business plan with market analysis, and student start-ups register as a company before they move on.

After pre-incubation, students are admitted to the university's technology business incubator, which the policy calls MDU-TBI, for incubation support.

Who can apply

The gate is the university community. The centre invites applications from alumni, students and faculty members. The draft policy covers students at undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD level, staff, faculty and alumni, and it also mentions potential applicants from outside the institutions.

Facilities

The centre's facilities page lists well equipped laboratories with instruments for building prototypes, the university's Central Instrumentation Lab, Tinker Labs and experienced faculty mentors. An incubation centre for electronics, IT and engineering ideas, sponsored by the Haryana government's IT department, sits in the University Institute of Engineering Technology building. The centre's own note describes it as almost ready and expected to be launched soon. The pages do not say whether it is now running.

Terms

The draft policy says the university may take an equity stake in a startup, or charge fees, in return for services and facilities, and that terms are decided case by case. The approved version of the policy could not be read, so confirm terms with the centre before you commit.

Track record

The only startup the centre names on its site is Dafeteria, a food business that its own brochure describes as incubated by the centre. The news and event lists on the centre page are mostly older items, and the latest news entry is not a programme.

Who runs it

Prof. Rahul Rishi is listed as Director and Prof. Sandeep Malik as Deputy Director. Prof. Prabhakar Kaushik is the nodal officer for the incubation centre at UIET. An older PDF names a different person as director, so confirm the current head before you write to the centre.

Contact

Write to dir.cise@mdu.ac.in for queries. The last published call for proposals had a deadline of 31.3.2023, so ask for current call dates before you plan around one.